


Heart in Hand

by janonny



Series: The Courtship Series [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: A/B/O meets the Bachelor, Alpha Steve Rogers, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Divergence - Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie), Ceremonial shenanigans, Comedy, Courting Ceremony, Except it's not really the Bachelor, Humor, M/M, Omega Tony Stark, background M'Baku/Nakia/T'Challa, background Tony/M'Baku, background Tony/Thor, background Tony/Tiberius, background Tony/random original characters, background Wanda/Vision, because I've changed the format significantly, but with a Tony flavor, but you get the gist right?, some very short inclusions of other ships like
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-26 05:48:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21718678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/janonny/pseuds/janonny
Summary: Steve had been thinking — that was all he was doing, thinking, not moping, as Bucky described it — about the best way to make his feelings clear to Tony. He wanted it to be perfect. He needed it to be the best demonstration of sincere interest that Tony had ever received.Bucky called it procrastinating, but Steve called it strategizing.And this Courting Ceremony? It was perfect.Now he just needed to figure out what to get Tony as a Courting gift. And what to wear. And what to say. And what to do.-Or the story where Tony, an Omega, holds a much belated Courting Ceremony. Steve joins up and loses his mind a little.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: The Courtship Series [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1635994
Comments: 237
Kudos: 776





	1. The first announcement

**Author's Note:**

> This story is set in a universe that diverges from canon after Infinity War. The Snap still happens, half the world turns to dust. But then Tony comes back to Earth and they figure out how to defeat Thanos within a month (instead of 5 years), bring everyone back and no one dies. I already wrote a couple different stories around how this can be done in [Saving the World is a 12 Step Program](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19434760) and [hold your breath (now let’s go save the world)](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18647182), so if you’re interested in the hows of it, you can check out those stories. (This story is **not** a sequel to either of those standalones.) But I’m just going to handwave how Thanos is defeated here for the sake of a/b/o courting shenanigans!
> 
> This story is set almost a year after Thanos’ defeat. I’m writing this like a/b/o is normal, and everyone has been an Alpha, Beta or Omega all this time. Tony and Pepper are good friends but have never dated. 
> 
> This was originally written for the 2018 SLS but then I panicked and wrote another story instead. Now I’ve finally finished this! A million thank yous to [Coaster](https://archiveofourown.org/users/coaster) for all the beta-reading, for ensuring this story made sense and for all the brilliant suggestions! Any remaining mistakes are my own, likely due to my own additions made after beta-reading, oops...

_“It has been almost a year since half the world’s population disappeared and then were restored back to us within a month. It’s been almost a year since our unimaginable catastrophic lost, almost a year since we’ve gotten back our loved ones, families, friends, frienemies, annoying neighbors, that guy at work who uses all the staples and never refills, yes, you Gary, we know, it was you, and it takes a lot for us to say that we miss_ **_you_** _._

 _“Ahem. Anyway, some have called the resurrection a miracle, an intervention from God, while completely failing to question why God decided half the world’s population should become litter tray material in the first place. Others have talked about mind control from the aliens who landed on earth, but that sounds like the dumbest thing to mind whammy the world into believing. I’m an expert on what aliens want, I got my degree from watching five thousand and thirty-eight sci-fi movies, and it is undeniable fact that aliens are all here to_ **_eat_ ** _us, yes, you heard me._ **_Thor_** _, we’re on to you. Aliens don’t land on our planet and mind whammy us into imagining that half our population disappeared, come on! They’re not here to watch us run around weeping and crying just for tickles. We’re not actually_ **_that_ ** _entertaining, people._

_“Many more people lay all credit at the feet of several superheroes who fought not just around the world, but around the galaxy to bring our loved ones back. Mostly because the superheroes said they did all that. But they would, wouldn’t they? Anyway, today, I’m not going to dwell on what happened, any more than I already have done anyway. We’ve dwelled on this for almost a year now and it seems like we dwell on nothing else some days._

_“The sudden absence of half the world’s population for a month has left its mark on us. The people have been back for longer than they have been gone, but it feels like the world is struggling to get the fuck over it. Oh, the disruption was massive, no doubt. The destruction that occurred is still being tallied up. But mainly, I think we are just emotionally traumatized by what we saw and went through. We’re not quite ready to dust ourselves off and party yet. Yes, I said that. Too soon? Too soon._

_“With the upcoming Courting Week, many are hoping for a restoration to normalcy, for some kind of distraction through inane festivities and celebrations of an archaic way of viewing our gender. We have the usual suspects lining up. ABC has promised an eleventh season of The Unbonded Omega, premiering on the first day of Courting Week as usual. I guess with their abysmal success rate, with nine out of eleven couples breaking up publicly and uglily during their formal Courtships after their televised Courting Ceremonies, the network figures that they just have to try, try, try again. Scent and Showcase, this is a new one, where strangers meet for the first time in an open Courting Ceremony and demonstrate their individual talents to attract potential suitors, has gotten the studio’s green light, because what better way to spend two hours than to watch a bunch of assholes who think flapping their ears count as a talent embarrass themselves on live television._

_“The nation is officially ready for a distraction. And boy, has someone really stepped up. We thought the royal family would jump in with something convenient but I think they’re out of available princes to marry off. And seriously, who really cares about royal weddings? Nothing exciting ever really happens there._

_“But never fear, it’s Iron Man to the rescue! Tony Stark has announced that he will be having a live broadcast Courting Ceremony, mid-Courting Week, and he’s allowing all members of the general public to apply to be suitors. Oh my god, folks. Can you believe this? It’s like my dream come true! I don’t care what anyone says, this is the biggest event of the year. Yes, even in comparison to the apocalypse! Here’s a chance for anyone who is anyone to have a chance at bonding with Iron Man._

_“You’re hearing it here first, I’m throwing my hat into the ring. That’s right. I know what you guys are saying, what is Iron Man going to want with a dumpy middle aged British guy who looks like_ **_this_** _? Oh? What? Okay, yes, and I’m also already married to my lovely wife, but why should that stop me? You think she doesn’t want to marry Iron Man too?”_

The glass cracked in his hand. Water started dribbling out of it onto his hand and dripping onto the floor. But Steve didn’t notice, because he couldn’t spare any attention for that; his entire focus was on the talkshow host and this latest news.

“Uh, Steve, are you okay?” Sam asked. “This probably wasn’t the best way for you to find out.”

“Tony is holding a Courting Ceremony,” Steve said, his voice coming out strangely flat. He didn’t recognize his own tone, his mind too roiled up to pay attention to what he was actually saying. 

“Yeah, but you know that doesn’t mean much, right? He’s obviously just trying to lift everyone’s spirits. I heard it’s going to be a huge spectacle, and he’s going to try to make some money out of it for the Maria Stark Foundation. People don’t really get married these days immediately after Courting Ceremonies,” Sam pointed out.

Steve shook himself out of his daze and stepped towards the kitchen to put his leaking glass in the sink. “I know that, Sam. I’m not that out of touch.”

“You just seemed a little worked up,” Sam said warily. “A lot of these Courting Week’s reality shows and televised ceremonies are scripted. No one is going to really be expecting to enter an actual Courtship with Tony as a result of his Courting Ceremony. That would be stupid.”

“Would it?” Steve asked, turning to look at Sam.

Bucky walked into the living room, towelling his hair dry. “Hey, what’s— Uh oh.”

Sam turned with a frown. “Uh oh, what?”

“Uh oh, that’s Steve’s ‘I’m about to do something stupid’ face,” Bucky said, emphasizing his point by jabbing a finger in the direction of Steve’s set jaw and determined expression.

“But he looks like that all the time, oh yeah, I see. You got a point there,” Sam agreed.

Bucky grinned and held out a fist to Sam, who obliged him with a fist bump and a grin of his own. Steve rolled his eyes before turning his attention back to the television. Bucky and Sam only ever got along when it involved ganging up on him.

“So what stupid thing is Steve gonna do now?” Bucky asked.

“I’m not going to do anything stupid. Tony just made an announcement that he’s going to do a live publicized Courting Ceremony.”

“Uh oh,” Bucky said again.

“He’s kind of flipping out. He broke a glass over it,” Sam said with a pointed stare at Steve.

“It was just a crack,” Steve mumbled, still looking at the television.

Bucky sighed. “I think you’re gonna have to brace for the level of stupid he’s going to take this to.”

“What do you—”

“I’m going to Court him,” Steve announced. “Publicly. At the Courting Ceremony.”

“There we go,” Bucky said, clapping Steve on the shoulder before collapsing on the couch dramatically. “Always knew I could rely on you, buddy.”

# # # # # #

The thing was that Steve and Tony were fine. They were fine, completely alright. Oh sure, there had been tense moments, harsh and low arguments late into the night, but they had worked through their issues. Shouted, cried, apologized and hugged it out. It was hard to hold grudges when Tony had staggered off that plane with Nebula and nearly collapsed straight into Steve’s arms when Steve had run towards him. They had both clung to each other, obviously amazed and relieved that the other was alive.

They had worked through their past conflicts. There had been no room for discontent in the team when they had to go up against Thanos, not with the weight of half the universe on their shoulders.

So they were friends again. They were friendly with each other once more.

Steve had never hated a word as much as ‘friendly’.

They weren’t even on the same team anymore. It was decided that the Avengers were over-concentrated in one location. So Tony had taken half the team to Malibu, while Steve had stayed with half the team in New York. The plan was to regularly rotate the members of each team out so every individual would have experience working with everyone in both locations, and they had plans to change team leaders based on a schedule as well. Steve had no doubt that at some point, he would be on the same team as Tony again. 

That didn’t change the fact that Steve missed him _now_.

Things were better between them. They were friends again, bond reforged through loss and a shared goal.

But Steve wanted something more.

Steve had always wanted more. But he was always too afraid to take the first step, fearing rejection. The last few months, hell, the last few _years_ , showed that there were worse things than rejection. Steve had been thinking — that was all he was doing, thinking, not _moping_ , as Bucky described it — about the best way to make his feelings clear to Tony.

He wanted it to be perfect. He needed it to be the best demonstration of sincere interest that Tony had ever received.

Bucky called it procrastinating, but Steve called it strategizing.

And this Courting Ceremony? It was perfect.

“Have you gotten anyone Courting gifts before?” Sam asked as they walked past yet another beautifully decked out storefront that seemed to contain nothing of any interest.

“I have, but outside of Courting Week. I never saw the point of waiting until Courting Week,” Steve said absently, stopping at the next store to stare in. Row upon row of beautifully tailored suits, and they were all useless to Steve. Tony’s closet probably cost more than the entire store put together. And Tony’s favorite well-worn T-shirt had little kittens on the front. Steve doubted that would be the kind of clothing he would find in this store.

“He’s never been to a Courting Ceremony either,” Bucky chimed in. “Said he didn’t see the point and people should be able to decide who they like without a ceremony.”

Sam marvelled, “How things have changed. You’re really messed up over Tony, aren’t you?” When Steve pretended not to hear him, Sam sighed and asked, “Did you always spend as long over each Courting gift? Because we’ve been at this for hours and you haven’t gotten a single thing.”

Bucky was rummaging in a small packet of popcorn that he had picked up from who knew where. He stopped to explain, “He was terrible at Courting gifts. He didn’t really spend any time on the gifts, just got whatever was easiest and fastest to obtain.”

“I— You know what, I wasn’t expecting that,” Sam said. “Share some of that popcorn, will ya, and tell me all about Steve Rogers the crappy Courting gifter.”

“You should get your own, asshole,” Bucky grumbled.

“Tastes nicer when it’s someone else’s,” Sam said with a grin.

Steve sighed. “Why spend time on the gifts when I knew no one was going to accept them, not with the way I looked back then? I only gave them because Bucky kept trying to get me to do double Courtships with him.”

“Sure, blame me,” Bucky said. “Hey, one person did accept your gift, which was the one gift you spent more than one minute thinking about: Peggy Carter.”

Sam gaped. “But Peggy Carter was an Alpha. Steve gave an Alpha a Courting gift? I’m surprised she didn’t see it as an insult considering how things were like back in the forties.”

“Peggy was always special,” Steve murmured.

“Yeah, she was. Only one to accept your Courting gift even though it was weird as hell,” Bucky said.

“What was it?” Sam asked out of curiosity.

“Walther PPK and a special holster,” Steve said, keeping his voice steady through the memories of her smile when she opened the neatly wrapped box, of the way her eyes lit up, of her acceptance of the gift. “She loved it.”

“Sounds like a hell of a lady to like a gift like that,” Sam said, clapping Steve on the shoulder in light reassurance.

Steve was never good at being an Alpha. Before the serum, no one had time for him, so he had no time for anyone. After the serum, there was only Peggy, and their courtship was unconventional from the start. It was short-lived as well, seeing as he crashed into the Arctic soon after he gave Peggy the Courting gift. Daniel, the guy she had bonded with afterwards, must have been one hell of an Alpha to snag her attention. 

“What about you? What amazing Courting gifts did you used to pick out for the unlucky Omegas you liked?” Bucky asked Sam. 

“Eh, I don’t swing that way.”

“Oh...you don’t?” For some reason, Bucky sounded surprised. It was strange because Bucky typically didn’t make assumptions on preferences and not every Alpha preferred Omegas, regardless of the stereotype.

“Yeah, I’ve only been with Betas and let me tell you, my Courting gifts were unparalleled. One time, I prepared this—”

Not really paying attention to Sam’s boasting, Steve moved on to the next storefront. Would Tony like glass sculptures? Some artistic glassware to display? He continued on in dissatisfaction. Maybe this art decor furniture store would have something? Some of these pieces looked sleek and modern, all clean lines and free of overly-ornate designs. They would fit right in with Tony’s various homes where the construction and in-built functionalities were always ingeniously executed with Tony’s signature touches, but the furniture usually looked like they came straight out of an interior design magazine. 

No, that was stupid. Steve wasn’t going to buy Tony _furniture_. One might buy pillows or blankets for nesting before the first shared heat, but you didn’t buy furniture for Courting Ceremonies. That fleeting thought about Tony’s heat and what they might do together to prepare for it was enough to make Steve squirm and feel warm under his collar. 

Steve forced himself to stop thinking about _that_ , otherwise things would get very awkward fast. 

Anyway...furniture. He couldn’t believe he had considered furniture as an appropriate Courting gift. 

Why was this so hard? What could Steve buy Tony, one of the richest men in the world?

“Can you even afford some of this shit?” Bucky asked, sounding disdainful as he eyed a footstool in the storefront’s display. “How much are they, I don’t see a price tag.”

“Which means they cost too much already,” Sam muttered, grabbing another handful of Bucky’s popcorn.

Steve sighed. “You’re not wrong. Maybe we shouldn’t have started on the high end of town.”

While Steve had received a large sum for his backpay, being on the run after the Accords had eaten into that. They weren’t penniless or hungry, but he didn’t exactly have a lot of spare cash to throw around. 

Tony still funded the Avengers but it wasn’t like Steve was going to dip into the Avengers funds for a Courting gift for _Tony_. 

Bucky interrupted Steve’s morose thoughts. “What? You want to start looking for a Courting gift for a billionaire from Dollar Tree instead?”

“Why do you know about Dollar Tree?” Sam asked, sounding amazed. “Steve doesn’t know about Dollar Tree and you were like a Winter Robot for years.”

Steve would protest except Sam was right, he had no idea what Dollar Tree was. For the most part, Steve was very well-versed with the modern world, but there were some minor references that he didn’t get. From context, Dollar Tree was probably a place where he could buy gifts for cheap. Either that, or it was a tree consisting of dollars. He would find out through Google later.

“They let the Winter Soldier out to run missions so I remember some things. A lot of useless late night television programs. And you know I shook off the brainwashing fast. I’m just that quick,” Bucky said with a smirk.

“That’s what she said.”

Steve ignored their little scuffle and moved on to the next store. It was a scent shop called “Scentology”, with an elegant sign upfront promoting their “Special Courting Gifts” and smaller text about their bestseller “Crimson and Gold”. It seemed likely that the store was trying to sell to the hopefuls who would be attending Tony’s Courting Ceremony and there really was no reason for Steve to believe that a company trying to cash in on Tony’s event would be of any help…but he was curious.

He walked into the shop and looked at the prominent display on a stand right by the entrance. On a deep blue velvet cushion was a delicate round bottle encased in finely wrought red metalwork, the bottle containing a clear gold liquid. There was a smaller tester bottle beside the cushion and he picked that up to spray a little of the scent into the air.

The smell of roses and sunflowers permeated the space and filled Steve’s lungs. It was sweet and delicate and nothing at all like Tony. He had no idea why this was called _Crimson & Gold. _

“Can I help you, sir?” an assistant offered, dressed in a gray cashmere sweater and dark slacks. His name badge said ‘Lee’ and he smelled like an Omega. “This is our current bestseller and a real hit among the Omegas right now.”

Steve nodded stiffly, not even able to imagine Tony wearing a scent like this. “Thanks, but it’s not really what I was looking for.”

“Oh, do you have something in mind? We have a lot of new Courting promotions going on right now. We have the Prince & Princess line, the Earth series, and also our own personalized Scentears.”

Steve frowned. “Scentears?”

“It’s the latest fashion, an idea we’ve picked up from the Wakandans, although they don’t call it Scentears,” Lee said with genuine excitement. He started explaining to Steve, “The original Wakandan earrings are made from a special Jabari wood imbued with scents, but obviously we’ve no access to such special wood. What we do here instead is make these earrings with tiny little globes that sit behind the lobes. The little globes contain scents, to better enhance those sweet spots behind our ears. We have a whole range of beautiful earrings _and_ you can customize the scents you want to better suit the person you’re courting.”

Lee had bustled Steve over to another counter with a range of fine gold and silver earrings, each with little globes on the backs. Steve felt a little overwhelmed looking down at almost fifty pairs of different earrings.

Perhaps sensing his complete indecision, Lee offered, “Or you could focus on customizing a special perfume instead. The Scentears aren’t necessarily a trend everyone is interested in, but who doesn’t like a nice customized perfume, am I right? What scents do you think the person you’re Courting might be interested in?”

“Um, he likes the scent of grass?” Steve said, thinking about Tony’s green smoothies which he drank constantly and always tasted like grass to Steve.

Lee nodded, head bobbing as he swooped to another counter and drew out a small vial from an intimidating array of vials. “That’s a very good summer scent, here, smell some of this.”

By this point, Bucky and Sam had wandered into the scent store as well, still obnoxiously munching on their popcorn. They drifted over to Steve’s side.

After Lee sprayed a little of the scent into the air, Steve took a sniff and immediately shook his head. “No, it’s…not exactly that.” It did smell like freshly mowed grass, but it didn’t smell like the green drinks Tony was always pouring from the blender.

“You can also mix different scents to get the perfect fit,” Lee said with a bright offer. “What other scents does this person like?”

“Coffee,” Steve said immediately, thinking of how Tony could be lured into the communal kitchen with freshly brewed coffee, even when he was half-asleep and barely coherent. Maybe _especially_ when he was in that state.

Lee said hesitantly, “That’s unusual, but we do have that in stock. I’m not sure if grass and coffee will go together though—”

“And cheeseburgers,” Steve continued, also thinking about how Tony hovered when he had some meat patties for cheeseburgers on a grill.

“…grass, coffee and cheeseburgers?” Lee said with narrowed eyes. “Is this a joke?”

At this point, Bucky and Sam laughed so hard that they almost spilled popcorn across the pristine floor, and all three of them got shooed out of the store as a result.

“You’re not helping,” Steve said through gritted teeth at the two of them.

“It’s better that we got kicked out then,” Bucky said between chuckles. “Otherwise who knows what horrible scent you would have made for Tony.”

Sam suggested, “Coffee, the smell of petrol from a fancy car, expensive aftershave, oh yeah, that’s the sexy stuff.”

Steve ignored them as he moodily continued his walk down the row of stores. That had been a complete wash. Scents were a very popular gift for Omegas, but it didn’t seem quite right for Tony.

His eyes landed on a lingerie store. Maybe Tony would prefer something racy for a Courting gift. No, not for Tony, because then that would be a present for _Steve_ instead. Steve tried not to have thoughts about Tony in lingerie because he was in public and he didn’t need to explain why he was suddenly sending out possessive and aroused pheromones.

But what if Steve got lingerie for himself? Something lacy, in red and gold colours. Maybe it would be bold enough to catch Tony’s attention?

Steve shook his head, trying to clear his mind. It would be much too forward a move for someone he wasn’t in a Courtship with. And it would give off the wrong impression that he was only after Tony for sex.

Tony did make a joke about slinky leather catsuits that superheroes and villains always wore in the movies and how come no one in real life did that. Maybe Steve should get a slinky leather catsuit, with a plunging neckline to show off his muscles, and present himself in it as a present for Tony…

Okay, his ideas were getting wildly stupid. Steve knew he was falling into a spiral of desperation when he started considering superheroing in tight leather catsuits as a Courting gift. That would only be a gift for the press.

Nothing he got was going to be good enough for Tony. Clothes, jewellery, decoration. There wasn’t anything Tony couldn’t buy himself and buy better. That wasn’t even including what other suitors would get him. The others would be going all out to impress him and would probably take the gifts to a whole new level of lavishness.

It was for Tony after all. Who wouldn’t want to win his attention?

“Let’s go home,” Steve said.

Bucky and Sam stopped their bickering.

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up already?” Bucky asked, sounding a little worried for the first time that day.

“No.” Steve shook his head, giving Bucky a determined look. “It’s time to regroup and come up with a different strategy.”

“Why can’t you just ask the guy out like every other normal Alpha?” Sam grumbled.

Steve ignored him and walked off, mind already churning through the plans he had.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There are individual Courting Ceremonies and open Courting Ceremonies. For the individual Courting Ceremonies, one person is courted by multiple people. At the end of the Ceremony, the person will choose their preferred suitor and they will enter into an extended Courtship after that to be sure they are compatible with each other, with the aim to eventually get engaged and married.


	2. Why is this so hard?

_ “—about all the controversy, Felicia?” _

_ “Well, Ben, most of his history is known to everyone but let’s do a quick recap. When Stark came of age, his mentor Obadiah Stane arranged for an individual Courting Ceremony. It was said that Howard Stark had little interest in such ceremonies, seeing as he never had one himself, and was only persuaded to allow it because of his business partner’s influence. Word on the street at that time was that Tiberius Stone was the frontrunning contender, the one everyone expected to win young Stark’s favor. _

_ “But the ceremony was never held, because a few days before the ceremony, old photographs of Tony Stark in bed with people who looked to be an Alpha, a Beta  _ **_and_ ** _ an Omega was published in the press. The photos were pretty explicit and it was hugely scandalous at that period of time.” _

_ “Photos of an orgy with a promiscuous Omega at the center would still be pretty scandalous in our current period of time, I would think!” _

_ “That’s true, and even today, not everyone is accepting of Omega-Omega relationships. So not only was the timing of the news just terrible, but the evidence that the young Stark heir was, well, of loose morals and was part of, ahem, unconventional relationships involving all three genders was all people would talk about. The ceremony had to be cancelled post-haste to save the Stark family further embarrassment because no suitors would have turned up if it had gone ahead. _

_ “Ever since, Tony Stark has openly expressed his contempt for Courting Ceremonies and shown no concern about what the public thought about his relationships. He has been with Alphas, Betas, Omegas, and flaunted it all in the public eye.” _

_ “Thanks for the recap, Felicia. So it’s with great interest as the nation, and even other parts of the world, watch as news about this Courting Ceremony unfolds. Now let’s go over to our expert guest on Omega courting rituals, Doctor Dan Whithers. Doctor Whithers, what do you think about Tony Stark holding a Courting Ceremony now?” _

_ “It’s a bit late in the game, isn’t it? Look, Ben, we know Stark only ever expressed contempt for Courting Ceremonies because he couldn’t exactly hold one without being shamed by how no one would turn up. His conduct has just been too wild and loose for there to be anyone to really be interested in him. People might be a little more open with, ah, unusual relationship dynamics nowadays, but a lot of people still shy away from that.” _

_ “That’s very true, Doctor Whithers. So do you think anyone will be attending the Ceremony?” _

_ “Oh, a few people hounding after his money will turn up I’m sure. Good thing he’s so rich!” _

_ “And why do you think Stark is holding the Courting Ceremony now, of all times? Why not several years ago when he would have been more...uh…” _

_ “In his prime? Haha, well I suspect Stark is feeling some regret that he was too busy and irresponsible at his prime reproductive age to settle down, and he’s trying to make up for lost time. To be honest, for any other Omega, I would say save your money and forget about the ceremony. But Stark has money to spare and to be frank, money to attract—” _

Steve switched the channel and had to force himself to put down the remote control gently.

“That’s Doctor Tony Stark to you,  _ Doctor _ Whithers,” Steve said under his breath. Tony himself never seemed to care about the title, but it still drove Steve nuts whenever so-called experts never remembered Tony’s own academic achievements when they were busy flapping their lips about him. The Doctor Whoevers of the world never seemed to remember Tony’s own PhDs, which maybe wasn’t surprising considering how academia still held prejudices against Omegas. 

“I could have been watching that,” Natasha said from where she was sitting on the other end of the couch. Then, she leaned over to try to look at his notepad. “Are you composing another angry letter?”

“You say that like you haven’t threatened to remove the balls and knots on some insulting journalists,” Steve said as he cracked his neck and stared down at his notebook.

Bucky, from his cross-legged position on the floor, surmised, “He’s compiling a list of potential Courting gifts for Tony.”

The notepad had several pages filled with small neat writing, but nothing felt good enough. All the plans and gifts Steve was thinking up just didn’t feel right, didn’t feel like they would communicate his feelings properly. And Steve had a lot of feelings on this.

How could he express the way his attention was haplessly drawn to Tony whenever they were in the same room together? How could he show that he missed Tony when they were apart, felt like the world was too quiet, suddenly drab and dull, without Tony around? How could a gift capture Steve’s feelings, how he found Tony both infuriating and exhilarating?

It seemed impossible.

“Did you tell him it was scripted?” Natasha asked Bucky. “So none of this really matters because Tony probably has someone in mind already.”

“Sam did. Over and over again. But he’s adamant,” Bucky responded absently as he scrolled through something on his Starkpad.

“Steve, you know it’s not going to be a genuine Courting Ceremony right? Tony will go through a fake Courtship with the predetermined winner for a couple months, maybe even just a couple weeks knowing his tolerance level, and then they’ll announce that they’re not compatible after all.”

Steve was having a headache and making no progress with his list of potential gifts so he put down his pencil. He turned to Natasha as he leaned back against the couch, looking at her with an assessing eye. “You know Tony better than that. He hasn’t followed a single cue card or script that anyone has ever given him for media events in the past years. If he’s doing it, he’s going to run with it in whatever way he likes. Maybe he will or won’t go through a Courtship with the person who wins, but it’s not going to be scripted or predetermined.”

Natasha sighed, giving up on that line of persuasion it seemed. “That’s possible. But what difference does it make then?”

“It means I have a chance now,” Steve said, meeting her gaze, trying to will himself to really believe it, trying to force the slightly queasy feeling in his stomach into something sure and confident instead. Please let it be true, please let him have a chance going up against what would probably be hundreds, maybe thousands of other interested parties. 

Natasha rubbed her forehead and pointed out. “Steve, you have a chance regardless. If you walked up to him now and asked for a date, you would have that chance right away.”

“That’s what I said to the punk,” Bucky chimed in. “Everyone can see it but him.”

Steve shook his head. “We started out on the wrong foot, but this Courting Ceremony will be a chance for him to see a different side to me.”

Bucky groaned and put his head down on his Starkpad, as if giving up.

“This will probably encourage you for all the wrong reasons,” Natasha said carefully, eyeing Steve up. “But I did talk to Pepper.”

“And?” Steve asked, knowing he was leaning forward like a bloodhound on a scent.

“And she said Tony wanted to hold this Courting Ceremony as an attempt to help people move on from what Thanos did, give them something else to talk about. But she was also worried because Tony has been acting a little strange lately,” Natasha said carefully.

“Strange how?”

“She couldn’t really describe it.”

Steve frowned. “I wonder if he’s okay. When was the last time you spoke to him?”

“Not any time in the last month.”

Which was further back than Steve, who had spoken to Tony two weeks ago. Everyone had been too caught up, separated to two different locations. No matter the result of this Courting Ceremony, Steve mentally vowed that this would change. He would make sure he met up with Tony at least once a week. Maybe more if he could swing it.

That did give him an inspired thought. How could he try to come up with gift ideas for Tony without even at least talking to Tony first?

“I’m getting nowhere with this,” Steve said, getting up from his couch.

“And that means?” Bucky asked, sounding wary.

“I’m going to do some recon.” Steve grabbed his jacket from the coat hanger. “Time to visit Tony.”

“You’re going to fly all the way to Malibu for research on your Courting gift,” Natasha said. She didn’t make it a question, but her expression made it clear she was questioning his sanity.

Steve had no idea why. It was a perfectly reasonable decision. The Courting gift had to be perfect. Steve needed more inspiration, and for that, he clearly needed to do some reconnaissance on it. The best research would have to start with the recipient of said gift: Tony Stark. 

“It makes sense,” Steve said, shrugging on his brown jacket. “Pepper said Tony was acting strangely, which means one of us should at least check that out, and I need to do some research for this gift, so we can kill two birds with one stone here. It’s been too long since we visited anyway. You guys should stay here in case anything comes up. I’ll fly over and probably be back before night time.”

Bucky mumbled, never looking up from his Starkpad, “When it comes to visiting Stark, he’s hopping out of the apartment like his ass is on fire.”

Steve ignored that comment. Mostly because it was true.

He opened the front door and came face-to-face with Tony who had a hand lifted to knock on said door. Steve froze, his enthusiastic exit abruptly derailed.

Tony blinked and mimicked knocking on the air. “Knock, knock, it’s me, the most eligible Omega this side of America.”

From behind Steve, he could hear Bucky whisper, “This is kind of creepy. Are they mentally linked or something?”

“Tony,” Steve said, drinking in the unexpected sight and scent of Tony Stark at his doorstep. “You’re here.”

Steve had to try not to smack himself in the face at how he was stating the obvious.

“I’m here. Which is a good thing, I’m sure,” Tony said with his usual cool confidence, although his pressed lips revealed a hint of uncertainty.

“Yeah, of course. Come on in,” Steve said, wanting to wipe that uncertainty away with a press of his gentle fingers.

But that would be weird, and Steve was behaving weirdly enough. He couldn’t imagine what a sight he made to Tony. His hair must have been tousled from the numerous times he had run his fingers through it while trying to think up the perfect gift. He had smudged pencil marks on the side of his hand, and his lips were probably bitten red as he worried at it over the course of the morning.

In contrast, Tony was in a black leather jacket, hands now stuck in his very nicely fitted jeans. He had on dark blue shades that flattered his warm brown eyes, and his hair was artfully coiffed into a fluffy but slightly messy style. He looked poised and almost painfully handsome.

“Are you going somewhere?” Tony asked, pointing at the jacket Steve had pulled on hastily.

Steve blinked out of his stupor and quickly stepped out of the way. “Oh, no, it wasn’t important. I mean, I was just coming to find you.”

Tony walked past him, and Steve caught the faintest hint of Tony’s natural scent, free of scent blockers or enhancers. He smelled like warmth, like the sheets after a wash, like sunlight on grass.

“So, I’m not important then,” Tony said.

“What— No, why would you say that?” Steve asked in confusion.

Sounding more distracted than offended, Tony replied, “You said you weren’t going anywhere important, you were just coming to find me.” 

Steve closed the door and resisted the urge to bang his head against it as he played back his own words. He took a deep breath and let it out.  _ Get it together, Rogers. _ He needed to stop being such a mess.

“You can’t hold what an old man says against him,” Steve said with a self-deprecating grin as he turned around. “Even the serum can’t combat senility.”

That surprised a laugh out of Tony. “Alright, I’ll let you off just this once, Captain Ancient. Hey, Barnes, Nat, my favorite murdertwins.”

Natasha gave Tony a fond smile. “Bucky he wishes he was a murdertwin with me.”

“Hell yeah, I do.” Bucky smirked. “Stark, what brought you to this dump?”

Tony walked past and immediately started inspecting Steve’s television. It was new since the last time Tony was here, Steve didn’t have a television.

“I was in the neighbourhood,” Tony said in an obvious lie before turning an appalled look onto Steve. “Where did you even get this model of StarkTV? We haven’t sold this in years.”

Steve was too embarrassed to say that he had bought this second, probably third-hand. Then he had a moment of panicked realization that his notebook was lying open on the couch, on the fifth page of ideas he had for Tony’s Courting gift. He gave Natasha a pleading look, and she rolled her eyes but reached over and picked up the notebook before placing it on the armrest closest to where Steve was standing. 

“I have my sources,” Steve said as he scooped up the notebook.

Bucky also came to the rescue with a sceptical question. “You were in the neighborhood…all the way from California?”

It served as sufficient distraction, because Tony said, “What can I say, you guys have great pizza around here.”

Notebook in hand, Steve went into the kitchen and stuck it in a drawer. Then he started digging around in his cabinets.

“Stop messing around with our TV and tell us why you’re really here,” Natasha said, although her tone was light and playful.

“Or if you’re messing around with it, give it an upgrade,” Bucky piped up.

“I’m just not feeling the love today,” Tony said with an audible sigh.

Steve hurried back into the living room and put a glass of water and a plate of black pepper crackers on the living room table. “We don’t have any pizza, but you can snack on something if you want.”

“Hm, my favorite,” Tony said, and snagged a piece of cracker off the plate.

“What a coincidence,” Bucky mumbled.

Steve wanted to stomp on Bucky’s foot for that, but he was too far away. Fortunately, Tony seemed to be too busy chewing to take notice.

Then, Tony said, “You know, I didn’t think you were into that whole Alpha courtesy thing.”

“I don’t— It was just in case you were hungry,” Steve answered, feeling like he was completely transparent and that Tony must be onto him, that maybe Tony was making fun of him. He was starting to feel a little hot around his neck.

“He’s really not into that,” Bucky interjected. “Alpha courtesies, hah! If you’re able to, you should fend for yourself, that’s his motto. You should have seen him back in the day, he never liked to follow any Alpha tradition or courtesies, unless of course he was smit—”

This time, Steve was saved by Natasha who was suddenly up on her feet and hooking an elbow around Bucky’s arm. She practically lifted him out of his position on the floor, and he had to juggle to save his Starkpad.

“Hey, where are we—”

“I forgot I had a delivery at the post office and I need someone big to carry it,” Natasha said as she propelled him towards the door. She let go of her grip on him to backtrack and plant a kiss on Tony’s cheek. “We’ll be back.”

Then she grabbed her coat and was swirling an open-mouthed Bucky out the apartment. The door closed firmly behind them, leaving only Steve and Tony to stare in surprise at it.

“So, it wasn’t just me that found that strange right?” Tony asked with a slight frown.

“It’s Natasha, she has her reasons,” Steve said, feeling like he was about to start sweating from nerves.

“Yeah, sure,” Tony said, sounding unconvinced. Then he gestured at the television. “So you heard the news about my big bash?”

Even though Steve had changed the channel, there was yet another breathless coverage on the biggest Courting Ceremony in years being held for one Tony Stark. Steve really should stop watching television altogether, but it was like he was hooked on any and every bit of news about Tony, agonizing every time people speculated on the type of gifts Tony was going to get. Everything sounded much better and luxurious than what Steve could afford. 

“It sounds like it’ll be grand,” Steve said with a hesitant smile, unsure of what to say here.

“Eh, it’ll be a big party. I think the world deserves a distraction after everything,” Tony said with a careless shrug, which matched what Pepper had told Natasha. 

“You don’t have to be the one providing the distraction if you don’t want to,” Steve said, frowning at the way Tony had phrased it.

Tony waved his hand, but Steve recognized that media-ready smile, felt a pang of hurt that it was directed at him. “When don’t I like a big party? What about you, Cap? You like big parties?”

“Sure,” Steve said with a shrug.

“Good, because you’re invited. As a guest,” Tony said, reaching inside his jacket and pulling out a few envelopes. “Here’s your invite. The others are invited too of course.”

“Guest,” Steve echoed, a little numb.

“Yeah, guests. You know, my guests, to join in the festivities and watch some really hilarious activities play out. I have  _ ideas_,” Tony said, holding out the envelopes with a grin.

Steve reached out and took the envelopes. They were a shade of warm rich gold and beautifully textured. These probably cost a lot of money just for invitations to attend Tony’s Courting ceremony as  _ his guests. _ Not potential suitors, no. Tony didn’t even see them, didn’t see  _ Steve_, as a potential mate. To him, Steve was just a friend, just his team member who he wanted along for the party.

Steve felt like he had been cored out at the realization, like all his excitement had been scooped out of his chest with just those words.

“You’ll attend, right?” Tony asked.

Steve looked up into brown eyes that flickered from the envelopes to Steve’s own eyes, a frown appearing between Tony’s eyebrows. He looked at that handsome face, at those expressive eyes lined with dark lashes, at that soft mouth framed by a perfectly shaved goatee. He looked at Tony, whom he had wanted quietly and earnestly for years, who made things harder but  _ better _ on a regular basis.

And Steve knew, he knew he wasn’t giving up on this that easily. Steve Rogers was never a quitter. He was going as a suitor to the Courting Ceremony, because it was a chance to show Tony another side of him, one who would be worthy of spending his life together with Tony.

“You’ll see me there,” Steve said with a smile.

Tony smiled back, looking a little confused but also relieved. “Oh good. When things get a little crazy, I might need some help.”

Was Tony worried about pushy suitors?

“You’ll get all the help you need,” Steve reassured him quickly. “You don’t have to worry about that.”

“I’m not worried, but it’ll be good to have the team there anyway,” Tony said, reaching out and clapping Steve on his shoulder. Steve had to force his shoulder to stay relaxed under Tony’s grip, because he couldn’t help the surge of excitement at the realization that Tony was leaving his scent on him.

“Let us know if you need anything at all. Do you need any help with the preparations now?” Steve asked.

Back in his day, Courting Ceremonies were a community affair, where everyone came together to arrange a public ceremony open for all available Omegas in that community, rather than there being individual Courting Ceremonies with one person being courted. Only Omegas could be courted by Alphas or Betas back in the forties, so it was usually the Omegas who would plan most of everything for the open Courting Ceremonies since it was considered to be their celebration. But everyone else would still chip in to help where needed. 

Of course, things were different nowadays since anyone could be courted or do the courting, and individual Courting Ceremonies held for one person was common now. Open for all Courting Ceremonies were something that happened mostly in smaller towns now. But regardless of open or individual Courting Ceremonies, most didn’t come close to being on the same scale as Tony’s. 

As expected, Tony declined Steve’s offer of help. “Nah, that’s what I pay the event planners for. Your specialities aren’t in event coordination, as far as I know. If it is, don’t tell me. I don’t think I can handle knowing something else you excel at.”

Steve felt his cheeks warmed at the compliment. “It’s a lesser known talent that came with the superserum.”

Tony laughed, a sound which Steve wanted to roll around in. “I’ve missed you, Sassmeister.”

“You...have?” Steve said, probably sounding like an idiot but his thoughts were just chasing each other around with Tony’s casual mention of missing him, even as a small part of him was laughing at the idea that  _ Tony _ could call anyone sassy. 

“Maybe a little,” Tony hedged, looking down and then up at Steve from the corner of his eyes. “We have our moments.”

“We do,” Steve echoed. Then he admitted in a burst of words, “I missed you too, Tony. A lot. I was thinking we should...we should see each other more frequently. Shouldn’t leave it so long between meet-ups.”

A soft smile broke out over Tony’s face. For a long moment, they just stood there, looking at each other. God, Tony’s eyes were such a rich brown shade and they seemed to be saying  _ something _ to him.... 

Tony cleared his throat awkwardly and said, “Yeah, uh, ditto,” which earned him an eye-roll from Steve. Grinning in turn, Tony reminisced, “Although I could do less with the crazy shenanigans every time we meet up.”

“We don’t always have crazy shenanigans when we meet up,” Steve protested. 

Tony raised his eyebrows. “Exploding Marshmallow Man,” was all he said, which was enough to tickle a laugh out of Steve. 

That had been a wild night. Steve had agreed to meet Tony in Los Angeles, after a meeting Tony had in that city, which would also allow Steve to explore L.A. since he hadn’t been there before. But their friendly catch up was interrupted by a magic user terrorizing the city by making movie ghosts come to live. Both Avengers teams had flown to L.A. at great speed and joined the two of them in battle against all kinds of creepy and weird creatures. 

The Marshmallow Man from the Ghostbusters had grinned happily while stomping down the streets of L.A. until Thor had struck it with lightning before anyone could stop him. Much of the team had ended up splattered in burnt marshmallow, and it had gotten  _ everywhere_.

The embarrassing truth was that Steve did miss moments like that as well. That had been the first time the whole team had come together after Thanos. It had been funny to see everyone’s gobsmacked expressions and Tony laughing his ass off, almost hysterical at the sight of his team covered in burnt marshmallow while he had mostly escaped unscathed since he had been flying in a metal suit a distance away. Until Clint had chucked a glob of marshmallow right at Tony’s face. 

“I can’t believe you ate the marshmallow,” Steve suddenly blurted out, caught in his moment of nostalgia. “And announced that it was delicious.”

Tony threw his head back and laughed, loose and carefree in a way that was rare to see. For a brief second of pure happiness, Steve was completely contented that he could see Tony like this, free from his usual worries and not in the middle of bickering with him as always. Smiling, Tony winked. “It was burnt marshmallow, of course it was delicious. You can’t go wrong with that.”

“It can go very wrong when you’re covered in the stuff and it’s in your hair and eyes,” Steve said wryly. 

“At least you smelled sweet?” Tony suggested, eyes bright with suppressed laughter. 

Steve raised his eyebrows. “I always smell sweet, Tony, I don’t know what you’re implying there.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Tony said, before coughing for some reason, cheeks a little flushed. He looked at his watch. “Damn, I’ve got to go. Pass on the invitations to the others, will you? Tell Nat she would have gotten it directly if she wasn’t so strangely squirrelly and ran off.”

“You really want me to tell her that you called her squirrelly?” Steve asked skeptically.

“Uh, belay that, Captain,” Tony said with wide eyes.

“I’ll just tell her you wished you guys could have caught up,” Steve said with a smirk.

Tony pointed at him. “That was exactly what I meant.”

Leaning down, Tony grabbed a few more black pepper crackers. “Just snacks for the road,” he said.

“You can have the whole box,” Steve blurted out before he could control his wayward mouth.

“Don’t make me feel greedy, Cap,” Tony said, leaning in to press his cheek quickly against the side of Steve’s face before striding towards the door. “I can see myself out, don’t worry.”

And then he was gone, before Steve had stopped touching his own cheek in wonder. Cheek touching was an affectionate gesture with family and friends. It was a friendly way of sharing scent. 

It was the first time Tony had ever done it with Steve.

Steve felt his heart thrum within his chest as he stood there, hand still pressed to his cheek, breathing in deep to capture that hint of mingled scents. It was metal and leather, solder and sweat. It was perfect.

Steve looked down at the golden envelopes in his other hand.

Guests.

Steve knew what to do with his own invitation.

Ten minutes later, Natasha and Bucky came back to the apartment.

“Were you guys lurking outside the whole time?” Steve asked from the kitchen.

“Couldn’t go anywhere. We both left without our wallets,” Bucky said, a little grumpily.

“Did you ask him out?” Natasha asked, ever to the point.

Steve shook his head. “No. As I said, I’m going to court him as part of his Courting Ceremony.”

Natasha sighed, long and loud. But before she could say anything, Bucky was asking, “Uh, Steve, what are you burning in the sink?”

Steve watched the remainder of his envelope get eaten by the flames. “My invitation to Tony’s Courting Ceremony. Yours are on the table by the way.”

“Wait, why are you burning yours?” Bucky asked.

Steve turned from the ashy remains of the invitation and met Bucky’s confused gaze. “Because I’m going as a suitor, not a guest. I’m not going to need a guest invitation.”

“Ugh, why do you have to be so over the top about everything?” Bucky groaned.

“At least you unplugged the fire detector this time,” Natasha said, already opening her envelope. “Did you manage to ask about a Courting gift?”

Steve sighed, coming back into the living room. “No, there wasn’t any time. He had to rush off.”

“In the neighborhood, my ass,” Bucky muttered under his breath.

Steve wandered back into the living room with his notebook of gift ideas in hand. He stopped at the old and scratched up television cabinet, picking up one of the photos they had on display there. It was a picture of all of them back at what used to be the Avengers tower. The team was in front of an electric fireplace, sitting around on couches and talking in animation. Tony was telling some story, arms spread expansively, and Steve was beside him, looking on with what was clearly a besotted look. The place was covered in Christmas décor, signifying the occasion. In the background, there were even stockings hung on the fireplace, stockings with J.A.R.V.I.S., DUM-E and U labelled on them.

Steve touched the picture lightly and with longing.

If only he could come up with the perfect gift…

Steve touched the Christmas stockings on the photo and thought about the conversation he had with Tony. Suddenly, several ideas occurred to him at the same time. Steve held perfectly still, as if afraid that any movement would scare away the thoughts. But the ideas firmed up, expanded, and Steve knew, he knew exactly what to get Tony. And how he would pull it off.

“I know what to get Tony,” Steve announced, setting down the photo frame.

“Holy crap, forget about that, this is more important,” Bucky exclaimed.

Steve frowned as he turned around. “What’s more important?”

Bucky looked up with an excited grin. “Tony did something to our TV and we have over a hundred channels!”

“Let me see that,” Natasha said, grabbing the remote from Bucky. They both bent their heads close together, flipping through the channels with intense concentration.

Steve rolled his eyes and took his notebook to the dining table. He pulled out a battered chair and sat down. Time to get the plan in motion.


	3. Getting ready

_“Why does she have to go through an interview? She’s a princess, it really is outrageous that she’s expected to have to go through a screening process like everyone else. Stark thinks much too highly of himself.”_

_“But why is it outrageous? Royalty shouldn’t be exempt from the rules of the Ceremony, and the rules are decided by the person hosting it.”_

_“But she’s_ **_royalty_ ** _. Stark should appreciate that a princess is interested in him at all, considering his age and his checkered history.”_

 _“Please, this is America! Are we really so backward that we’re going to sit here and harp on about Stark’s age and history instead of considering what a catch Stark is, being a billionaire, a genius_ **_and_ ** _a superhero. And why should royalty get preferential treatment? If someone doesn’t want to undergo a screening process, then don’t join the Courting Ceremony!”_

_“But if she doesn’t join the Courting Ceremony, then it would be such a missed opportunity for Stark! Think about it, how romantic would it be for our very own Tony Stark to marry a princess. He should consider what it would do for his standing.”_

_“Or maybe she’s missing an opportunity at courting America’s most eligible Omega!”_

_“Come now, even Elon Musk has complained about the absurdity that they expect him to fill in so many forms and be interviewed. He’s registering his complaint by pulling out as a suitor and_ — _”_

Steve took a deep breath as he muted the television. At least this publicized debate was a little more even-handed and wasn’t just completely critical of Tony. Tony’s decision to distract the public with his Courting Ceremony seemed to be working a treat, except it seemed to have worked too well. Whille people were too busy to brood over what Thanos did and how the Avengers reversed it, they were also nitpicking over Tony’s Ceremony or complaining endlessly about Tony himself.

Shaking his head, Steve tried to banish all those thoughts and worries about the negativity directed at Tony because he knew he had to focus on his next task. It was almost time. 

He logged onto the website with the credentials that had been sent to him. He had gotten his gifts ready and now was time for his interview. Despite the complaints aired, it made sense to Steve that there was a screening process since the number of people who wanted to court Tony was likely very, very high, and it wouldn’t be possible to let all of them into the ceremony. Not unless they wanted to host this at a stadium. 

Although, maybe it would be hosted at a stadium. Not many details had been released about the Courting Ceremony, what it would involve and what anyone should expect, beyond the fact that it would be located somewhere in New York. Everything was shrouded in mystery, with more information to be released closer to the day of the ceremony. When Tony set out to distract the world and give everyone something to focus on, he did it thoroughly and with flair. 

The application process had been unusual as well, especially since Courting Ceremonies didn’t tend to include actual applications. Steve had to fill in a long online form with his personal details, preferences, likes and dislikes, hobbies, a description of his Courting gift, and even a positive reference from someone in his personal life. He had thought about it long and hard, and gotten a reference from Natasha. She was a mutual friend, and the team had frequently relied on her unsurpassed skills to read people, which made her a perfect character reference.

Now, it was the interview portion of the screening process, which the instructions had said would take approximately ten minutes. He had his suspicions on who he would be talking to.

After he logged in, a video conference started on his laptop with no further delay. A glowing blue globe took up most of the screen, pulsing as the voice spoke.

“Hello, Captain Rogers,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said.

“Hello, F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” Steve said with a smile. “How have you been?”

“I have been very busy, as you can imagine. And you?”

“I’m fine. A little busy as well.”

“You don’t seem surprised that I’m the one conducting the interview as part of the screening process,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, sounding a touch curious.

That probably meant that many of the other hopeful suitors hadn’t taken well to being interviewed by an Artificial Intelligence.

“It’s Tony. It’s the exact thing he would do,” Steve said, leaning back with a faint smile. “And it makes sense. With the number of applicants and short amount of time he has before the ceremony, you’re the only one who would be able to interview numerous people at the same time. You can probably go over all the application forms and make decisions in minutes. And he trusts you.”

F.R.I.D.A.Y. sounded amused as she responded, “Are you buttering me up, Captain?”

“Is it working?” Steve grinned boyishly.

“Maybe a little. Tony always said the Rogers charm can be quite lethal.”

“He did?” Steve asked, surprised.

“Yes, he can be quite observant sometimes. But quite blind too.”

Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “You don’t have the same issue, I’m guessing. You probably weren’t surprised at all when you saw my application.”

“Not one bit,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said serenely. “And I had this video call just to personally tell you that you’ve passed the screening and you’re now an approved suitor for the Courting Ceremony. Your entry ticket has been emailed to you, please show it to the attendants on the day of the ceremony.”

“Doesn’t the interview take ten minutes?” Steve asked, wondering if the other applicants got an approval so easily. It would be dangerous to let just anyone into the ceremony after all.

“I think I know more about you than any ten minute interview could ever reveal, don’t you think, Captain?” F.R.I.D.A.Y. pointed out.

“Good…point,” Steve conceded. Then he took a deep breath and looked at the camera on his laptop. “Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.. If I do earn his favor, I’ll do my best to make him happy.”

He couldn’t be sure, but he thought the blue sphere on his screen rippled with pleasure. “That’s all we can hope for. Thank you. And good luck.”

The video call ended.

Steve let out a deep breath. So, he was in. He had passed. And in another week, it would be time for the Courting Ceremony.

# # # # # #

Steve let the water run over his body, trying to wash away his anxious pheromones. This was not what he wanted to be smelling like when he walked into the ceremony hall. 

He was in the Avengers tower, after travelling to New York from California. His apartment in the tower was untouched, left as is, ready for him to use any time he was visiting. Even though he knew he could ask F.R.I.D.A.Y. for any sort of specially scented soap and shampoo, he was using his usual scentless shampoos and scentless soap. He knew it was a decision that could possibly cost him Tony’s favor, because the other suitors would be wearing all kinds of scent-blockers to hide their nerves, or scent-enhancers to smell more attractive. Going natural scented was old-fashioned and considered to be a disadvantage.

But Steve had never liked the artificial blockers or enhancers. He just knew that the scent he liked best was Tony’s strong muzzy, sleepy scent in the mornings, mingling with the smell of freshly brewed coffee. So he was going to take the risk and forego all the artificial scents.

By the time Steve stepped out of the shower stall, he was feeling distinctly waterlogged and not terribly calmed from his shower. He wiped the condensation off the mirror with a towel and stared into it.

His face looked pale under the bright white light and his hair looked thin while plastered to his forehead. The way his lips were pressed together made him look grim, unfriendly. He tucked the towel around his waist with a sigh.

Objectively, Steve knew he had an attractive body. His shoulders were broad, with a large chest tapering to a slim but muscular waist. His biceps were impressive, sure, and when he wore shorts outdoors, he knew photos of his ass and thighs ended up all over Twitter. But objectively, he also knew he was an attractive man _after_ the serum. There was nothing amazing or impressive about him, beyond what the serum had granted him. Other than his stubbornness and unflagging urge to fight against all odds, there was nothing else he brought to the table from before the serum. 

So what did he have to offer Tony? His body was strong and healthy, but it wasn’t a result of his own work. He wasn’t smart. He wasn’t nice. He wasn’t an instinctively nurturing Alpha, like some who found the urge to care for all Omegas. He was more likely to give them pep talks and lead them out to battle rather than trying to keep them completely free from harm. He was good at giving rousing speeches, not being a caring and protective Alpha.

On the day of the ceremony, right before he was supposed to dress and leave for the event where he would present himself to Tony, compete with all the other suitors there, Steve found that he wasn’t sure he was worthy of Tony’s attention after all.

He was rooted to the spot, staring at the mirror and feeling achingly inadequate.

A banging started against the bathroom door and Bucky’s voice called from outside. “I can smell you panicking, punk. Get out here.”

And so, even though Steve didn’t want to do anything but maybe crawl back into the shower stall and drown himself, he went outside to face Bucky.

“What’s going on in your head?” Bucky asked, arms crossed, and looking annoyed. He hadn’t yet showered or changed into his own formal wear.

Steve rubbed a hand over his face, not sure where to start. He said, his voice quiet, “I don’t know what I have to offer him, Bucky. All the Captain America stuff? That’s the serum. I’m just a nobody from Brooklyn, with nothing good to offer and no money to my name. All I know how to do is fight which I’ve demonstrated by fighting _him_.”

Bucky shook his head before coming closer to grip Steve by the shoulders. “You’re an idiot.” Steve was ready to agree with that, but Bucky shook him lightly and continued, “You listen here. We don’t follow you because you got some fancy serum in your veins. We follow Steve Rogers, the guy who never gave up, who took the risk and let himself be experimented on. You’re the guy who broke orders and came back for us. You wouldn’t be Captain America if you hadn’t earned our respect. That’s who we really follow. That’s not the serum, that’s all you.”

To Steve’s surprise, Bucky’s words did actually thaw out the fear and anxiety that had hardened into a freezing ice block in Steve’s chest. And Bucky’s Beta scent was just a relentless wave of comfort and confidence. Steve took a deep breath of it and pulled Bucky in for a hug. Bucky held him close, pressed Steve’s face to his neck to get more of the calming scent, and thumped Steve on the back a few times.

“You’re an idiot, but you’re our idiot. I don’t want you to ever talk shit about my best friend again,” Bucky said quietly.

“Okay,” Steve said with a slightly shaky voice before pulling away. He murmured, “I better get changed.”

“And I better get a shower. If you hadn’t spent an hour in the shower, maybe I wouldn’t have to rush now,” Bucky said with an eye-roll.

Steve held up his hands in concession. “The bathroom is all yours, your majesty.”

“Damn right it is,” Bucky grumbled as he walked into the bathroom.

Steve smiled and rubbed at his chest, feeling warmed by the friends he had around him.

# # # # # #

The event was massive. Even after all the screening and preliminary eliminations through the interviews, they had to hold it at an arena large enough to host everyone. It was probably why Tony chose to do it where the old Stark Expo used to be held, in Flushing Meadows.

Steve went there by car, which was of course a limousine sent by Tony, and shared the ride with Bucky, Natasha and Sam who were all staying at the Avengers tower too for their visit to New York. On the way over, he was almost overwhelmed by nostalgia. While many things had changed, the trip over was still familiar, and it felt like he was coming to a full circle.

This was the place where he had first met Erskine, his first step towards the serum, his first step towards the future. And here he was again, hoping to take another first step to a new life, to a new beginning with Tony...

“He really went all out,” Natasha commented as she stepped out of the car.

Steve got out after her and stared wide-eyed at the elaborate grand entrance of Tony Stark’s Courting Ceremony. There was red carpet laid out on the steps leading up to the entrance of the wide building that seemed to have been erected just for the ceremony. On each side of the red carpet were pillars made out of thick metal rods weaved together to support beautiful blue globes at the top. Men and women in black suits stood at the end of the red carpet by the large arched doors, greeting the guests and scanning invitations.

It was ostentatious. It was Tony Stark putting on a show.

There were reporters lined up along the red carpet leading into the building, standing behind red velvet ropes. They snapped photos and called out questions, but nothing over the top, so it seemed everyone was on their best behavior. None of the Avengers stopped to answer questions.

Natasha led the way in a beautiful black floor-length, long-sleeved dress with a slit going up her legs, almost all the way to her waist. She had said it allowed freedom of movement while providing a lot of places to hide her weapons. At a guess, Steve thought she probably had five assorted guns and knives stashed somewhere on her.

Bucky was in a black, double-breasted blazer and a white turtleneck. His pants seemed unnecessarily tight. Sam wore a deep maroon three piece suit with black edging against a white shirt and black bowtie. It seemed to be a big hit because the photographers kept calling out his name, trying to get him from different angles.

Steve tugged his jacket down nervously, feeling like it was too bold a choice. Everyone looked amazing and confident. He wondered if he came across a little bit like a clown.

Bucky looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow. “You coming?”

Realizing he was falling behind, Steve took a deep breath and forced his tense muscles to loosen up. This was the moment. He pictured Tony’s face, that lopsided smile, his ‘Scientists do it best’ T-shirt with holes in it. It didn’t matter what Steve wore. All that was just window dressing. The person to win over Tony would have to be someone really special on the inside, someone who would suit Tony best, and he was here to be that person.

Steve strode forward, ignoring the photographers who were quickly snapping shots of him in his deep blue three-piece suit and white shirt. His suit jacket, vest and fitted slacks had the finest dark red, almost black, pinstripes through them, the color only visible on close inspection. He wore a deep red bowtie as well to finish off the look. When Sam had seen what he was wearing, he had whistled and said, “Captain America formal wear. This is gonna become a trend, mark my words.”

Steve didn’t really care if it became a trend. He just wanted to own who he was and his own history.

“Natasha, who are you wearing?”

“Steve Rogers, over here please. Is that a new Captain America suit?”

“Sam, Sam Wilson, what do you plan to do here as Tony’s guests?”

“Captain America, who do you hope will win Tony Stark’s favor?”

Even though it should have been obvious, Steve’s focus on everything else to do with the event meant that he had not realized until this point in time that everyone thought he was just here as one of Tony’s guests, present like any other Avenger to support his friend.

Suddenly, Steve stopped and turned to the journalist who had called out that last question. It was unusual for any one of the Avengers to stop for questions from the press, so immediately, several cameras turned his way. Steve smiled, summoning a good all-American grin that he used to wear for the USOs and directed it at the journalists and photographers. Camera flashes went off by the dozens.

“Well, I’m hoping _I’ll_ win Tony Stark’s favor.”

There was a very brief moment of silence before the line of journalists exploded with noise, shouting question after question at him. But Steve just turned and walked on, having made his intention clear.

“You sure know how to make a statement,” Natasha said, having slowed down to watch the commotion.

“I learned from the best,” Steve said.

“I don’t know if that would be me or Tony,” she mused.

“You. If it was Tony, there would be more dramatics. An explosion or two,” Steve pointed out, wry.

Natasha smiled. “Good point.”

The greeters took their invitations, scanned them while making small talk and ushered them in. When Steve presented his suitor’s invitation that F.R.I.D.A.Y. had sent him, they beamed at him and put a slim black bracelet around his wrist. Apparently, it was a communication device that the suitors would need for the events of the night.

Steve felt slight trepidation at the idea that they would need communication devices for a Courting Ceremony, but he had no time to worry about it. They were sent through the impressive doors into the building. 

Every inch of the place was decorated. There were gold satin streamers and silver balloons across the ceiling, with soft blue light mounted in a wave pattern along the walls. Plush gold carpet covered the floor and beautiful glass tables with tall arching metal legs were set periodically against the walls. A round stage was set up at one end of the hall, its burnished steel floor bare.

Their group walked along the curved wall of the vast hall, ensuring they kept a vantage point of the wide open area out of habit. The whole place had been sprayed with a mostly neutral scent of spring water, the only way to mask the scents of so many people in one place. Scents from individuals were still detectable, but they had to be standing pretty close. Right now, Steve could only smell the comforting scent of his team as they walked close together, the familiar scent that let him know they had his back. 

“This looks like it’s walking the line between classy and completely over-the-top,” Sam commented on idly as he looked around the place.

Natasha pointed out, “The end product is probably the result of a tug of war between the very expensive event coordinators and Tony.”

“We have about ten minutes before the ceremony starts,” Steve said, checking his watch.

Natasha picked out a canapé from a waiter who presented a tray of finger food to all of them. “Which means another forty minutes in Starkland. He’s not going to miss out on a grand entrance. It’ll probably be like the Stark Expo all over again.”

“This looks ten times larger than what the Stark Expo used to be,” Bucky said, looking a little uncomfortable at all the people and staying closest to the wall.

“The Stark Expo is a lot bigger now than it used to be in your time,” Natasha murmured.

“Here, have a drink,” Sam said as he grabbed a champagne flute from a nearby waiter and passed it over to Bucky. “You’re starting to make me nervous.”

“This doesn’t really do anything for me.”

“It’s something to do with your hands so you don’t look so much like you’re going to reach for a hidden gun at any moment,” Sam grumbled.

Both Bucky and Sam started to bicker as their group of four slowly walked the perimeter of the circular hall. They grazed off the finger food and drank champagne, whether it affected them or not. They had walked round the hall four times when Clint was suddenly there, giving out hugs to everyone. 

“Hey, why am I hearing about Steve joining this courtship madness from the press instead of from any one of you assholes?”

“Are people talking about it already?” Steve asked, a little pleased that the news was circulating.

Clint replied with a huff, “It was all they were talking about outside. They asked me about it when I was coming in and I looked like an idiot, standing there gaping at them.”

“Business as usual then,” Natasha said with a lopsided smile while Clint mimed being stabbed through the chest.

“We were too busy holding Stevie’s hand through his panic attacks over his plans to court Tony,” Bucky said. “Didn’t have time to pick up the phone and gossip, sorry.”

Wanda found them next, dressed in a deep green thigh-length dress. “We almost got mobbed out there.”

“Captain, I wish you good luck on your endeavours in courting Tony. I am, as they say, rooting for you,” Vision said from beside Wanda, looking a little uncomfortable in his black suit.

“Thank you. The gold cape is an interesting look with the black suit,” Steve said in an awkward compliment, gesturing at the shimmering gold cape attached to the shoulders of Vision’s black on black outfit. The cape fluttered even though there was no wind within the hall.

Vision looked a little proud. “I thought it would go well with formalwear tonight.”

“And it looks perfect. You look very dashing, Viz,” Wanda said, shooting a glare around the group to dare anyone to disagree.

Before anyone had to formulate a creative compliment, the speakers suddenly blared with loud, noisy music, the type that Tony always played in his workshops.

“AC/DC,” Sam said with approval.

And they knew what that meant. 

Tony was here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, things are going to ramp up from here on out. :D Get ready for Courting Ceremony shenanigans.


	4. So it begins

All the lights in the hall dimmed significantly until they could barely see each other’s faces. Then suddenly, several spotlights shone down onto the stage just as it split open down the middle. Iron Man shot out from the hole in the stage amidst a suddenly dazzling array of laser lights, the sound of his repulsor blasts adding to the music.

The flashy red and gold suit took a circuit around the room, flying in graceful criss-cross loops before speeding back to the stage that was closing up again. Tony flipped in the air, light as a butterfly, and then dropped right out of the air to land with reverberating impact on one knee, his fist on the ground for balance. He held the position, probably basking in the adoration of the clapping and shouting crowd. 

Slowly, Tony unfolded from his crouch and stood up. As he moved, the Iron Man suit started to melt away, dissolving into glittering nanites that receded into his clothing. By the time Tony stood up completely, the nanites had drawn back and settled into...into… Steve’s mouth fell open as he took in what Tony was wearing. He had on a very form-fitting dark red halter waistcoat with matching pants, black leather shoes and a long sheer scarf of a slightly lighter shade of red trailing down his shoulders...and nothing else. He wasn’t wearing a suit jacket over the waistcoat or a shirt under it. 

Absently, Steve noted that there were gold accents at the collar and buttons of the waistcoat, but otherwise, he was too busy staring at Tony’s bare biceps and strong forearms. He drank in the way the halter of the waistcoat drew an upside down V close to the neck that emphasized the breadth of those shoulders. The waistcoat didn’t cut too deep down the front, just enough to reveal sharp clavicles and the dip between pectorals. From just above the waistcoat’s collar, there was a hint of glowing arc reactor and nanite container. 

With hair coiffed a little higher than usual and a goatee that had been shaped into perfection, Tony smirked at the crowd. 

Tony was breathtaking and _he knew it_. 

Steve wondered if his asthma was back with how it felt like the air had been sucked right out of his lungs.

The traditional Omega outfits at Courting Ceremonies tended to have a lot of sheer loose fabric and bared skin, swishing tantalizingly when they moved. These days, people tended towards more modern outfits, and how revealing they were varied significantly. In Tony’s case, he had gone for a modern look, sharp and bespoke, but with a Tony Stark twist that oozed sex appeal. 

Surveying his breathless audience, Tony spoke, his voice coming through the speakers even though he wasn’t wearing a visible mike. “Good evening, everyone. Welcome to my Courting Ceremony.” He spread his arms with a grin.

The crowd went wild, the cheering and clapping reaching thunderous volumes. Tony’s charisma and showboating was working overtime, so it made sense that the crowd was reacting accordingly.

Maybe it was being surrounded by people ogling Tony’s bare arms or the fact that every inch of the place was covered in glitz and glamor. But something about the whole affair shook Steve out of his daze over Tony’s outfit. Instead, looking around at the crowded arena, he felt sad and more than a little out of place. A Courting Ceremony should be a joyous, exciting affair. It should be a celebration, an invitation to interested parties. But this whole ceremony was so loud and in your face that it was as clear as day to Steve that Tony wasn’t taking any of it seriously. This wasn’t a side of Tony he saw on a regular basis anymore. This was the Tony he saw on television, at media circuits, with his false smiles and ostentatious entrances.

Steve rubbed his forehead, tried to ignore the hollering people. Regardless of how seriously Tony was treating the ceremony, Steve was going to go all in. There were no other options here.

On the stage, Tony looked across the crowd. “Thank you all for coming to celebrate me.” The comment and the unrepentantly cheeky smile earned him a ripple of laughter. “As many of you know, I had rejected the idea of hosting a Courting Ceremony for most of my adult life. But with age comes the ability to change my mind, and frankly, to hold a party whenever the hell I want. This isn’t just a Courting Ceremony to me. It’s a celebration of life, of what we have survived, of what we have achieved. It’s a celebration of all of us.

“Which is why this isn’t going to follow the usual Courting Ceremony events.”

Clint sighed. “Oh boy, here we go.”

The crowd started to murmur in mild agitation but Tony just raised his hands again, signalling for their full attention.

“Look, people, it’s my party, and I’m going to do what I want,” Tony said, which was such a Tony thing to say that Steve found himself shaking his head and smiling at the same time. “If you don’t like it, you don’t have to be here. Actually, that’s the part I’m coming up to. I’ve just decided this is a Courting Ceremony for everyone.”

A Courting Ceremony for everyone? So Tony was turning this into an open Courting Ceremony, instead of one just for himself? The whispers started up among the crowd, but Steve kept his gaze trained on Tony.

“What we’ll start off with are the Courting gifts. You can present your gifts to me, and I may or may not accept them. You can also, right off the bat, decide you don’t want to present me with a gift anymore after you hear what I have planned. Well, I say planned, if coming up with this in the last ten minutes counts as a plan. If you decide your gift is better suited for someone else you’ve just met at this ceremony, by all means, approach them. Be polite and respectful about it, otherwise we’re booting you out of this place.

“After the gifting ceremony, we will have some…drumroll please, come on, F.R.I.D.A.Y., don’t let me down here, thank you!” Tony paused dramatically for the drumroll that filled the air with rolling beats. Tony’s grin was wide and visible even from where Steve was standing, so far back from the stage. “Thank you, F.R.I.D.A.Y.. We will have a _masquerade_!

“Yes, after your gifts, everyone will be given masks, and I’ll wear a mask as well. Then we’ll dance. It’ll be beautiful, trust me. Anyone can dance with anyone, and I’ll be somewhere in the crowd, dancing too. The infallible F.R.I.D.A.Y. will ensure I get a couple minutes of dancing with each and every one of you whom I have accepted a gift from, but because of the masks and because I’ll change out of this sweet number I’m in, you won’t know who I am. Just so I can see how you’re like when you’re not sure if it’s me. And because it’ll be fun! 

“For those whom I’ve decided we aren’t compatible based on the gifts, you can still mingle and dance, and maybe find someone else you want to make a lasting connection with. Or a very short connection, whatever floats your boats.” At the end of that suggestion, Tony winked.

“He’s crazy,” Natasha sighed.

“What’s new?” Clint asked with a shrug.

Wanda looked up at Vision. “It sounds kind of fun actually. I’ve never been to a masquerade.”

Vision smiled down at her. “But you know that I will recognize you no matter what mask you’re wearing.”

“Come on, no cheating, Viz,” Wanda said with a teasing nudge.

“I won’t need to cheat to recognize you.”

That earned him a blush from Wanda and an exaggerated eye-roll from Bucky.

“Hey, maybe you’ll find yourself someone here too,” Natasha said to Bucky with a smirk.

“Yeah, right. I’m going to find a waiter to bring me some real food, that’s my mission,” Bucky complained.

Steve didn’t pay them any attention, because he was feeling the first stirrings of panic.

Then, Tony added, “Oh, also, there’s going to be a mud wrestling pit, laser tag and some party related games outside after the masquerade. It won’t matter if you join in or not, that’s just some extra fun for everyone. And a good way for some of you to show off whatever hidden talents you have.”

There were a few whoops from the audience, and Tony pointed in those directions in approval.

“I wonder if they’re going to have darts,” Clint said, eyes lit up.

“And finally, at two in the morning, I’ll announce who wins. Yes, two, because that’s the kind of lifestyle I lead. What was that? Oh, sorry, Pepper,” Tony looked aside to someone off-stage before looking forward again with a careless shrug. “Apparently I’m not supposed to behave like this is a competition because there are no winners, just the person most compatible with me. Which is ridiculous. Of course this is a competition! And the winner of the competition will win… _me_.” Tony smirked and there was more laughter and giggles from the crowd. “Thank you for coming, everyone. Now, shower me with gifts!”

The lights all snapped off to plunge them into total darkness. When the lights gradually came back on again, there was a stool on the once-empty stage and Tony was perched on it. He also had Happy standing next to him, looking distinctly disgruntled. With Tony sitting down and his side facing the front of the stage, Steve could see that the waistcoat only covered the lower half of his back. From this angle, he couldn’t see much of Tony’s bared skin but his imagination helpfully conjured up sharp shoulder blades and the graceful line of his spine. Steve had to adjust his collar, feeling a little heated under his own suit. 

“First suitor by random selection,” Happy said, sounding like this person wouldn’t be selected at all if left up to him. “Janice Chan.”

But Steve didn’t have time to daydream about Tony’s gorgeous shoulders and back or stare at the other suitors. His slight worry from earlier was turning into a full-blown panic. The tips of his fingers were actually tingling as the back of his neck broke out in cold sweat.

“I wonder what they’ll do if the gift is too big to be carried,” Sam said. “Because some of these rich cats are going to try to give Tony cars and mansions, I just know it.”

“Ah, to be that wealthy,” Clint murmured.

“That sounds like too much. My favorite Courting gifts were personally made. And it used to be traditional to receive it anonymously,” Wanda said, a little dreamily.

Vision smiled down at Wanda. “You liked my Courting gift as well.” 

Clapping Vision on the shoulder, Clint asked, “I always meant to ask but what’s your primary gender then? You don’t have any scent, so it’s hard to tell.”

“I can be anything I want to be,” Vision said with beatific calmness. 

“What...really?” Clint asked, staring between Vision and Wanda. 

Wanda nodded with a blush coloring her cheeks. “Yes, it’s...very useful.”

Bucky turned around with a grin on his face, probably ready to drop a terrible joke on Steve, and did a double take instead. “Hey, you okay? You’re all pale and shit.”

That got everyone else’s attention. They all stared at Steve in worry, which did not help his tripping heart and clammy hands.

“What’s wrong, Steve? Take a deep breath, let it out,” Sam said as Bucky squeezed Steve’s shoulder.

Steve let out a small gasp and finally managed to squeeze out, “It’s a masquerade.”

“Yeah, and you wear masks for your day job, what’s the problem?” Bucky asked with a confused frown.

“And a dance,” Steve continued in a groan.

“Oohh, shit, don’t tell me you still haven’t learned how to dance?” Bucky demanded.

“You don’t know how to dance? Dancing at this kind of thing is not unusual,” Natasha said with a frown, probably disappointed at Steve’s failure to research this mission properly.

“It wasn’t how we used to do it back in our day,” Bucky said in mild defence. “Dancing was for fun. Courting Ceremonies were fun too, but they were also more formal back then, with a lot more traditions around getting to know each other. None of these dancing and mud wrestling stuff.”

Vision interjected, “To be fair, mud wrestling is not common for Courting Ceremonies even in this modern day. That is just a…Tony Stark feature.”

“What am I going to do? _I can’t dance_ ,” Steve interrupted with horrified emphasis.

“Oh god, it’s Captain America’s arch nemesis: dancing,” Sam said under his breath, which earned him an elbow in the ribs from Wanda. “What! It’s true! You need to calm down, Steve. It’s not like you can learn to dance now, it’s too late.”

“That’s true. And you want Tony to want you for who you are, don’t you? And he knows you can’t dance,” Natasha said in a soothing tone.

Did he want Tony to want him for who he was? Because right now, he felt like Tony set a masquerade dance for a reason, so he probably wanted someone who could dance. Forget all that stuff about wanting Tony to want him for who he was. Steve wanted to be the kind of person Tony wanted. Not a boring old-fashioned Alpha who wasn’t fun and didn’t know how to dance.

“Okay, come on, let’s go focus on something else,” Bucky said.

He grabbed Steve by the elbow and dragged him towards the stage, applying his elbow when necessary to get to his destination. When they were about ten feet from the stage, Bucky grabbed Steve by his shoulders and looked him in the eye.

“Alright, listen up, punk.” Bucky stared hard and tightened his grip, obviously trying to impart some important but comforting advice. “You’re screwed when it comes to the dancing.”

That was important but hardly comforting.

Steve glared. “Thanks, Bucky. That’s helpful.”

“No, I mean, you’re really screwed. You have no hope of out-dancing anyone. Forget two left feet, it’s like you have _four_ left feet the moment the music starts and you sway like your joints are welded in place. At your size, you’ll probably break toes once you start your embarrassing moves.”

“Why are you my best friend again?” Steve wondered aloud, eyes wide with increased terror.

“So forget all about it,” Bucky said, shaking Steve by the shoulders. “Where’s the strategizing Captain we usually follow? Play to your strengths, compensate for your weaknesses. What you need to do now is observe your competition and be better than they are at whatever they’re trying to sell up there. The first step is getting your gift accepted. _Pay attention_. Strategize. Deal with the dancing later.”

It was stupid advice that did nothing to solve Steve’s problem, but it was delivered in Bucky’s matter of fact way that was so familiar by now. Somehow, the lack of comforting and soothing words actually comforted and soothed Steve’s anxiety.

“Alright. Alright, I’ll…focus on this instead,” Steve said, gesturing at the stage. He knew it was just a ploy to get him focused on something other than the dreaded dance, but at this point, he was happy to take any distraction he could get.

Because Bucky was right. When it came to the dancing, he was screwed anyway. There was no point thinking about that right now. Steve forced his eyes to the stage, forced his considerable attention onto what was happening on stage.

“Good job, Bucky,” Natasha said approvingly.

“This, I can manage. Just don’t let him find some wrong he has to right, then we’re all just along for the ride.”

Steve tuned out how they were talking about him in front of him and focused on Tony and his suitors instead. There was a large projection of the stage on the curving wall of the hall, large enough for anyone in the audience to watch. But Steve was grateful that Bucky had pulled him almost right up to the front instead, because he preferred looking at Tony in person, rather than at a projection.

There was a beautiful, dark haired woman on stage, sitting on the stool across from Tony. She was describing what sounded to be a penthouse. “—with beautiful views over the Hudson river, custom-furnished for Omega needs. It has _complete_ soundproofing, which makes it ideal for when we need our privacy.”

The way she said the last sentence was very suggestive. Tony was looking at something on his StarkPad, probably the photographs of said beautiful apartment. Photos of the apartment were also projected onto the big screen which explained what would happen when a gift was too big to be carted onto the stage. Steve couldn’t see what made the place custom-furnished for Omegas and wondered if it was euphemism for something more risque. The thought made possessiveness roil in his gut which he had to grit his teeth to ignore.

“Hmm, I guess it’ll do. Thought you would be more creative, Bain,” Tony said, looking up with a bored look. Steve knew immediately that Tony wasn’t going to treat this suitor seriously, which helped him relax again.

“Come now, Tony, surely we should be on first name basis,” the woman purred.

“Sunset Bain, thank you for your time,” Happy interrupted, waving her off impatiently.

She did not look impressed as she sashayed off the stage in a huff.

The next few suitors were similar. They got less than three minutes on stage, most of it spent describing their gifts. Tony accepted or rejected with varying levels of interest, and the suitors weren’t given much of a chance to react before they were ushered off the stage.

Some of the gifts were a bit racy.

“They’re made of the finest silk.”

Tony held up the rather skimpy lingerie which he had taken out of a very expensive-looking box, not at all embarrassed to let the cameras fully capture the lacy red and gold teddy and G-string. “And who’s wearing this? Me or you?”

“We could take turns,” said the muscular man with a grin. Steve couldn’t scent him from there, but he would bet that he was an Alpha.

That earned a laugh out of Tony and acceptance of the gift, to Steve’s disappointment and growing worry. 

Steve was just a little concerned that his gift was too boring and staid. Even cheap. He was worried that Tony would look at it and think it was a joke, as compared to all the other luxurious and decadent gifts being presented. It wouldn’t be like Tony at all to think that way, but the disparity in price between what most people got for Tony and what Steve had chosen was starting to nag on Steve anyway.

The approach of it was also unsettling. There were no discussions, no warmth during the gift presentation. No one declared their intentions when they presented the gifts, be it an interest in a trial courtship or a devoted intention for a marriage. It was all taken for granted, like this was just a game.

“Here is the range of latest technology from my company and—”

“I think I’m insulted. Rejected. Next!”

“I present to you a figure of Iron Man, made out of rubies and garnets.”

“I guess it’ll do as a paperweight. Accepted. Next!”

“I have all these stocks in several companies—”

“Rejected due to an abject lack of imagination. Next!”

All of a sudden, someone jumped onto the stage without waiting to be called. The man walked over to Tony, holding out his arms like he expected a hug. “Tony, I give to you what I meant to give to you all those years ago if not for the unfortunate cancellation of your first and only Courting ceremony.”

Tony looked like he had just eaten a lemon— no, Steve had actually seen Tony munch down on a slice of lemon with much relish. This looked more like Tony had bitten down into a lemon to find out it tasted like rotten eggs. He was frowning and wrinkling his nose, leaning away from the man. Steve clenched his fists, muscles tensed to help if needed. But looking at the man with his bleached-blonde hair and smarmy expression, Steve knew Tony could handle this one.

“F.R.I.D.A.Y., please don’t tell me you approved Tiberius Stone as one of my suitors?” Tony asked with an unimpressed squint directed at the man in what was likely to be a very expensive white suit.

F.R.I.D.A.Y. must have responded directly into Tony’s earpiece, because after a short pause, he said with some incredulity, “You’re not on the approved list. Are you actually crashing my party here?”

“I’m offering you my love,” Tiberius said, pressing a hand to his chest. “You know we should have been together, that we’ve always been the most compatible.”

“Nope. Rejected. Someone get him out of here,” Tony ordered with no small amount of disgust.

Several security guards came forward, but Tiberius still stupidly took another step forward. Suddenly, a gauntlet formed over Tony’s hand, nanites glittering as they poured out at great speed until Tony was armed in less time than it took to blink.

“Try me, Stone,” Tony said with a shark-like grin. “I would love to blast your balls off.”

He aimed his gauntlet lower significantly.

Tiberius paled and allowed himself to be escorted away. He shouted over his shoulder, “You’re just a has-been, Tony. You think you’re so great? Nobody really wants an old, dried-up Omega like you, they only want your money!”

“And yet he was the one gatecrashing, so desperate to court an Omega he doesn’t want,” Tony said with a disparaging look, addressing the audience who gawked at the sudden little drama. Clapping his hands twice, Tony continued like nothing had happened, “Okay, next!”

Steve wished he could lay one on Tiberius, but it would only cause more trouble for Tony. Anyway, Steve knew that Tony wouldn’t appreciate anyone trying to defend his honor for him, not when he could do it for himself. 

Natasha leaned in and murmured to Steve, “S.H.I.E.L.D.’s file on Tiberius indicated that he was after Stark Industries and even cheating on Tony, but Tony had seemed enamored with Stone at that time. After Obadiah Stane’s later betrayal, there’s some retrospective analysis that suggests that perhaps Obadiah had leaked those old orgy photos of Tony to stop Tony’s first and only Courting Ceremony because he didn’t want another Alpha involved in running Stark Industries. If Tony’s orgy with the Alphas, Betas and Omegas hadn’t hit the news before that first ceremony, history would be very different now.”

That chilled Steve’s blood a little, the idea that everything would have been so drastically changed if not for Tony’s privacy being invaded that way. It was terrible that Tony’s private life was treated like that, but he could have ended up bonded with someone like Tiberius Stone instead. Something bad had happened which somehow managed to prevent something even worse. 

Suddenly, a familiar figure climbed onto stage. Steve gaped.

Just like how he did with the other suitors, Happy announced his name like he would rather be chewing glass, “M’Baku is next on the list.”

Tony looked as stunned as Steve felt. They had all met in the battle against Thanos, and as far as Steve knew, M’Baku had shown no interest in Tony at all. If anything, he had thought M’Baku and T’Challa might have been dancing around a topic of a mutual courtship.

“Uh, M’Baku. Hi. Nice to see you again,” Tony said, unlike his usual suave self.

M’Baku walked forward in a languorous prowl, like he was hunting prey that he knew was already his. It made the back of Steve’s neck prickle, like his hackles wanted to stand up, like he wanted to growl at M’Baku and get him to back off.

But M’Baku didn’t stop prowling forward, instead he walked past his designated seat and swooped down quickly to hold Tony’s chin, pressing a swift kiss to Tony’s parted lips. Before Steve could jump onto stage and rip M’Baku’s arms off, M’Baku had stepped back and was sitting down on the stool prepared for him.

“Uh…” Tony said before his tongue darted out to lick his lips, as if on instinct.

A growl ripped out from deep in Steve’s chest, loud enough that a few of the audience members around him started to edge away. Both Bucky and Sam poked him in his sides until he stopped growling. Steve took deep breaths, trying to remind himself to stop acting like a caveman.

“Hey, no kissing allowed during the gifting ceremony,” Happy snapped out, a little too late.

M’Baku raised an unimpressed eyebrow. “Kissing in greeting is the Jabari way. Surely you don’t believe I should forfeit my customs for your rules.”

That...was a total lie. Steve knew it had to be a lie. They had met many Jabari during the war against Thanos and there had been no kissing whatsoever. Steve fumed in silence at M’Baku’s audacity to just go around kissing Tony like that. 

Tony looked sceptical, but he waved his hand at Happy, letting the kiss go. “I’m surprised to see you here, M’Baku. I didn’t think you were interested.”

“A handsome intelligent Omega like you wouldn’t interest me?” M’Baku said with a slow smile. “Trust me, Tony, I’m an Omega of discerning tastes. And you most definitely interest me.” His voice had dropped to a low rumble, dark eyes drawing over Tony’s body in a languid, suggestive stare.

Tony’s eyes were wide and he licked his lips again.

Steve’s urge to leap onto the stage again was interrupted by Happy saying, “Alright, tone it down. What’s your gift?”

M’Baku waved a hand languorously and his attendants brought out a lush, deep gold fur rug with dark spots running through it. “Our people have a way of obtaining fur with no harm to the animals. This will bring out the depths of your eyes beautifully.”

“It’s— It feels amazing,” Tony said, running a hand through the fur with wonder on his face.

“It feels best against bare skin,” M’Baku advised, raising his eyebrows suggestively.

“Ah, right. Well, thank you. And I accept your gift,” Tony said, sounding a little flustered.

M’Baku got up gracefully and took a step forward. “It is my honor that you do.”

Happy stepped in front of Tony. “No more kissing, pal. We’ve still got a long line to get through.”

M’Baku smirked and walked away with the air of a cat who got the canary and was going to enjoy licking every inch of it.

Steve grumbled under his breath, “Tony’s eyes are perfect, they don’t need stupid fur to bring out their depths. Their depths are perfect as they are.”

“Alphas,” Natasha said with an eyeroll.

“You’re an Alpha too,” Wanda pointed out with a grin.

“Yes, but I’m a smart one.”

“True, true.”

The next few gifts went pretty quickly, with Tony rejecting a couple and accepting some sweet handmade gifts, including a crocheted scarf with little Iron Man figures all over it, which Tony seemed to really like from the way he ran his fingers over it.

“I’m giving you five Lamborghinis, two Porsche and two Ferrari,” said a haughty-looking older man, gesturing at the photos Tony must have been looking at on his Starkpad. A fleet of nine cars were projected on the large screens as well, so that the audience could see what he was getting Tony.

“That just makes you seem undecided, Edmund. You didn’t even pick a theme, they’re just random cars by different makers in different colors. You know what, I’m going to evoke the rule about one gift per person. So, buh-bye.”

Steve thought back to his gift and started to shift nervously.

The next person was a nervous woman who started with, “I don’t have money for anything fancy…”

Tony raised a hand, looking sincere when he said, “Hey, that’s not the important part here. This isn’t a competition for most expensive goods.” He winced a little at that, as if aware that most of the gifts were pretty ostentatious and splashy, belying his claim. 

The curly haired woman handed over what looked to be a canvas wrapped in silver paper. When Tony had torn off the wrapping, he stared at it for a moment, before turning it so that the audience closer to the stage could see it and video cameras could capture what was on the canvas and project it on the walls. It was a beautiful portrait of Iron Man in the air, his suit gleaming gold and red against the blue sky.

“It’s gorgeous,” Tony said, tracing the suit with a finger without touching the canvas. His voice was soft, unusually quiet. “I love it. Thank you.”

The woman’s face lit up with joy when Tony accepted her gift, clasping her hands to her chest in disbelief. On one hand, it was a relief to know that such gifts were well received by Tony. On the other hand, her artwork looked a lot more professional than anything Steve could ever produce. He was starting to feel a little sick at how inadequate his gifts might be. 

“Alright, next is…” Happy squinted at his StarkPad.

There was a gust of wind as the domed ceiling opened. Lightning cracked through the night sky, followed by a loud rumble of thunder, and all of a sudden, Thor landed on the stage from above with resounding impact, his red cape swirling behind him. Happy almost fell off his feet, but Tony held on to his stool, keeping his balance through long practice. This wasn’t the first time he'd experienced Thor’s dramatic entrances.

Tony frowned. “There’s only room for one dramatic entrance, buddy, and that’s mine. I’ve told you this before.”

“Tony, I am here with a gift,” Thor said, throwing his cape back dramatically to reveal a large box.

“You don’t have to present a gift as a guest,” Tony explained.

“I’m here as a suitor,” Thor announced proudly.

“Asgardians don’t even have Omegas or Courting Ceremonies,” Tony said, baffled.

Thor leaned in. “It was explained to me that this is a ritual to earn your favor. I have always thought we would be most compatible in carnal matters.”

“Carnal matters…” Tony repeated, now wide-eyed.

“Why, yes, when two or more people copulate—”

“Okay, okay, uh, I get your drift,” Tony interrupted quickly, still looking a little gobsmacked.

Bucky leaned in, “Is this guy serious or is he pulling our legs?”

“It’s hard to tell with Thor,” Steve said through gritted teeth. Were all their comrades in arms going to turn up to have a chance with Tony? Steve had no idea they were all interested otherwise he might have come up with more strategies on courting Tony. 

Oh, who was he kidding, he had no strategy at all. 

“Look, I’m not sure if I can accept your gift when I don’t think you even understand what this is all about,” Tony said.

Thor waved a hand while thrusting out the large box. “I understand enough, you do not need to worry about it. Now, examine your gift. She’s particularly rambunctious but her scales are like an activated Bifrost Bridge.”

“…scales?”

The box rattled in Thor’s light grip, and a loud hissing could be heard from inside.

“Yes, it’s a most beautiful and rare Asgardian flying snake.”

That caused startled murmurs among the audience and Tony looked like he wanted to rest his face in his palm. Happy seemed torn between stepping between the box and Tony, and stepping right off the stage. 

“Flying...snake. Yeah, I can’t accept this gift. I would make a terrible pet owner, just ask anyone. I’m sorry, Thor. Thanks for coming, but I can’t accept this,” Tony said, leaning away from the rattling, hissing box.

Thor looked crestfallen. “I’m sorry to hear that. I had hoped to present an exotic gift, but did not take into account your busy lifestyle that is unsuited for pets. This has been a costly misstep.”

“Hey, Thor, it’s alright. Still friends?” Tony asked, almost tentative.

“Of course, our friendship forged in battle is not so easily broken. I will look for a suitable home for this snake,” Thor said and swooped forward to plant a heavy kiss on Tony’s lips. They couldn’t see much more than the back of Thor’s long blonde hair but his large hand could be seen cupping the side of Tony’s face as he tipped Tony’s head back.

Tony looked a little dazed when Thor pulled back after Happy started complaining.

“It is the Asgardian way of apology,” Thor said, with a grin. With that, he leapt off the stage and disappeared into the crowd. If he had exited closer to their group, they would have probably called to him. All the better that he didn’t, since Steve might not have been able to tamp down the urge to fight him. 

Asgardian way of apology, his ass. Thor had never before kissed anyone as a sign of apology.

Maybe Steve could start claiming that people from the 40s kissed as a sign of greeting _and_ apology. That thought distracted him from his growing annoyance at his fellow teammates.

The next few suitors were not as dramatic, but Steve’s eyes remained glued to them, taking in everything they were doing, analyzing their gifts, ranking them in terms of threat. He only startled out of his complete focus when he felt his wrist vibrate. Steve looked down and realized the vibration was coming from the black band around his wrist, the one they had put on him at the entrance. He brought it up and saw the words, ‘Come to the stage’ scrolling along the smooth face of the bracelet.

“You’ll be fine,” Bucky said, clapping him on the shoulder before turning it into a shove.

Steve rolled his eyes and walked to the side of the stage where everyone seemed to be entering from. Since he was quite near to the front, there wasn’t far to go. A man with an earpiece on, marking him as security, gestured him to stand in line. There were two more people in front of him, one visibly nervous while the other looked cocksure. They were standing close enough for Steve to make out their scents, no longer muted by the neutral spring water scent sprayed throughout the venue. The one who was visibly nervous was wearing scent-blockers so it was strange to look at him fidgeting so much but only be left with a sterilely clean impression. Meanwhile, the other suitor was practically drenched in Alpha-enhancing pheromones. He smelled like ten Alphas concentrated into one human. It was off-putting and strange to say the least. 

Steve rested his hands on his belt, and took a deep breath, searching for the familiar center before a fight. He watched the people in front of him go up the stage, one by one, and presented their gifts, staying calm the whole time. His heartbeat was speeding up but it was the kind of adrenaline he could channel, that he used effectively on a battlefield. He wasn’t going to fight Tony, but this wasn’t any different to any major battle, and he was going to come out on top.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Monday somewhere in the world still, right? Sorry about that... I went on a road trip and time became meaningless once I got back!


	5. Heart in hand

“Next is… huh, Steve Rogers,” called out Happy.

Another person right at the steps leading up to the stage handed Steve a very large box. “Your gift that you sent in earlier, Sir.”

Everyone had to send in their gifts before the Courting Ceremony to be scanned by F.R.I.D.A.Y. for any hidden dangers. It also meant no one had to awkwardly carry around the heavier gifts with them. Steve took the large box and stepped onto stage. He could do this.

His senses were battle-ready, his adrenaline high but his nerves calm because he was prepared and he knew in his heart that he was the most compatible with Tony. It was the most important mission of his life and he had spent weeks getting ready for this day. He knew he could do this. 

Steve looked up and his gaze met Tony’s wide, deep brown eyes.

Oh fuck, no, he couldn’t do this, he had made a bad mistake, why did he think this was a good idea? He couldn’t compete with anyone, he was carrying an oversized handmade box, what the hell was he _thinking_?!

Steve realized he was walking on autopilot, drifting forward without remembering when he had done so, sitting down on the stool without conscious thought.

He was so doomed, Steve thought gloomily. Maybe he could move to the Arctic after this. Go back under the ice. Those were the good old days. Quiet, peaceful, total lack of consciousness, no public humiliation at the love of his life’s Courting Ceremony.

“Steve?” Tony said, uncertain. “What are you doing here?”

There were loud murmurs coming from the audience, shock at Captain America’s sudden appearance among the long line of suitors. Clearly a lot of people hadn’t been checking the news coverage on the event, Tony included, which would explain his wide-eyed surprise. Steve stared haplessly at Tony, knowing he was making this moment awkward but found himself so tongue-tied that he couldn’t even answer.

Then the band on his wrist vibrated, which caused him to look down with a jolt. All it said was, ‘Make him happy.’

He realized the only person who could have sent him that message was the same person who was coordinating everything digital and electronic in the room, the same person who had vetted him and found him worthy without even conducting an interview. The message from F.R.I.D.A.Y. reminded him of that brief conversation they'd had.

_“I’ll do my best to make him happy.”_

That was it. Steve just had to do his best to make Tony happy, and in the end, the decision was in Tony’s hands.

“Hi, Tony,” Steve said, squaring his shoulders and looking up, chin lifted. “I’m here to court you.”

Now it was Tony’s turn to gape at him. It was a really funny sight, with the way Tony’s mouth fell open a little and how he just stared with slightly wild eyes. Steve brought his hand up to rub his nose in an attempt to hide his smile.

“Uhh, were Courting Ceremonies different back then? You, uh, do know what this is for? The intention right?” Tony said, unusually incoherent.

“Things haven’t changed that much, Tony,” Steve said with an exasperated smile.

“Okay, yes, I know that, but still. You want to court… _me_?” Tony asked, like he still couldn’t believe it. 

“I didn’t accidentally fill in an application form and accidentally attend an interview with F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” Steve pointed out wryly.

Tony blinked. “Wow. F.R.I.D.A.Y. never said... Huh. I’m just surprised. You never…uh...” He trailed off, looking more than a little dazed. Then he shook his head, visibly pulling himself together. “Never mind. Um, you have a gift for me?”

Steve took that as his cue to place the large box at Tony’s feet, since it was too big for Tony to carry easily, before taking his seat back on the stool again. Steve tried not to blush at the sight of his clumsy gift in Tony’s hands. He thought he heard Tony mutter under his breath, “I can’t believe I got a Courting gift from Captain America, oh my god,” but he couldn’t be sure if it wasn’t wishful thinking.

After a moment of examining the box, Tony looked up with wonder in his eyes. “Did you paint this box?”

Forcing himself not to rub the back of his neck, Steve answered with some embarrassment, “Yeah, I did.”

“Wow, it’s amazing,” Tony breathed, even getting off the stool to admire it from a few different angles. Steve's gaze haplessly followed Tony's form, unable to stop looking at Tony's bare shoulders revealed by the shirtless waistcoat ensemble. When Tony walked around the box, Steve had to frantically think about cold showers and Red Skull's face. The waistcoat was cut low in the back and Tony's bare shoulder blades were right there in front of him and he wanted to lick them, to trace the dip of Tony's spine.

Steve took a few deep steadying breaths, telling himself that he had to stop staring at Tony like a feral Alpha. He forced his attention back onto what Tony was doing. 

Tony seemed to still be admiring the box, rather than making a move to open it. The large box was made from sturdy white cardboard Steve had put together. Along all four sides of the box was a painted skyline of New York against the red and gold backdrop of dawn, the Avengers tower featuring prominently as part of the skyline. On the lid of the box, the red and gold of the sky came together to meet in the middle in a white-blue glow. In the middle of the glow, Steve had painted faint lines to resemble an ethereal arc reactor, like there was an arc reactor instead of the sun lighting up the sky.

Tony looked at the lid of the box for so long that Steve had to fight not to squirm and in the end, couldn’t help but say, “I wanted to decorate the box but it’s not the actual gift. The gifts are inside.”

“Right, yes,” Tony said, letting out an embarrassed cough, before lifting the lid off the box.

This was where Steve had cheated somewhat, and he held his breath, wondering if Tony would decline the gift like he did with the man who had given him multiple cars. But Tony had accepted a whole chest full of antique books and a basket of various pastries and bread earlier too so maybe this would pass muster?

Steve realized that if he spoke up now, he might have a chance to convince Tony not to disqualify him. 

“I made them,” Steve blurted out.

Tony blinked, looking up with a questioning expression on his face.

Steve cleared his throat and continued, “My gift, I mean. They’re all things I’ve made. That’s the—” he struggled to remember what Tony had said then it clicked, “—the theme.”

The corner of Tony’s lips ticked up and he murmured, “A technicality, huh?” And Steve understood what he meant. It wasn’t a very strong excuse for presenting more than one gift, but Tony seemed to accept it. He put the lid of the box aside carefully, like it was made out of the most delicate of precious material instead of cardboard glued together. 

Tony lifted the first canvas out of the box, holding it right in front of his face so Steve couldn’t even see his reaction. The seconds ticked pass and Steve was starting to squirm when Tony flipped the canvas so it faced the front of the stage for the cameras to see. There was a big grin on Tony’s face. 

It was a painting of the Avengers. Tony had been presented with a few beautiful team portraits and solo Iron Man portraits by artists much more talented than Steve. The artworks inevitably depicted them at their most heroic, at their bravest and strongest. 

This was a painting of the Avengers, scattered around a street in Los Angeles after a difficult but ultimately victorious battle, where the heroic team of superheroes were completely covered in burning globs of burnt marshmallow. Thor was up in the air, swooping down with a sheepish smile on his face but with marshmallow gumming up his usually majestic mane of hair. There was Sam flat on his back, a giant marshmallow that was once the Marshmallow Man’s finger on his chest while Bucky’s face was almost entirely obscured in marshmallow. Only Wanda and Vision were unscathed, having used their powers to keep clear. 

Steve’s shield was covered in marshmallow and it was clear that Steve had kept his face clear of flying sugary treats, but the rest of his body that hadn’t been blocked by the shield was coated in sticky burnt goop. Natasha was standing behind Clint, but even she had burnt marshmallow on her annoyed face and Clint was almost completely covered in the stuff. Clint was also drawn mid-motion, throwing with deadly precision a handful of marshmallow at Tony who was in the middle of the street, laughing with his faceplate up. 

Steve had spent the most time painting Tony and he thought it showed. Tony was almost glowing with happiness in the painting, the corners of his eyes wrinkled as he laughed in sheer delight. 

Grinning, Tony said, “I’m going to hang this in the living room so everyone is reminded of what fucking great superheroes we are.”

“The essence of the Avengers,” Steve commented, matching his smile. 

Tony leaned the canvas carefully against the side of the box before reaching into the box again. It was another canvas painting and Tony ducked his head when he stared down at it. After a quiet minute, he showed it to the audience again but made no commentary. He only looked at Steve, eyes soft and warm. 

That was a painting of Tony in his workshop, done from memory. Steve had painted him in the middle of his workshop, eyes alight with excitement and tinted blue from the glowing sphere that was F.R.I.D.A.Y.. DUM-E and U flanked Tony, holding out tools to Tony as he worked on a familiar red and gold gauntlet on the table. 

It was soft and homely, a quiet moment showing Tony surrounded by the creations he so dearly loved.

“Thank you, Steve,” Tony said with sincerity glowing in his eyes. 

Steve smiled. “There’s more.”

Tony dived into the box with excitement, pulling out a small square box. He opened the box with glee and then blinked. Lifting it, he sniffed at the box and then pulled back with a laugh. 

“Burnt marshmallow scent?” Tony asked with no small amount of delight. “You made this on your own?”

“There are short courses for that,” Steve said. It was the only way he could have included this gift when he needed a theme of some sort to tie all his gifts together. 

“Oh, don’t, now you’re giving free PR to these scentears companies,” Tony joked. “I can see it all over the headlines now: _Captain America? More Like Captain Scentears_.” As he talked, he turned the little case to the audience so they could see the delicately wrought earrings, one clearly a representation of DUM-E while the other was U, both with a vial each to be worn behind the earlobes. “They even move!” Tony crowed as he poked at the DUM-E scentear, showing how his arm went up and down.

Steve didn’t exactly make every part of the Scentears earrings by hand. For one, he had no idea how to work with metal and turn it into fine DUM-E and U-shaped earrings. But when he had turned up for the very pricey scentears course, they had a little machine that could make whatever shapes you wanted out of metal, as long as you drew out the parts you wanted and designed how they fit together. Steve had fun with that machine once he had figured it out, carefully working it so that he could create moving joints for the earrings. Then he had made the scent himself, guided by the tutor there, who had listened with bafflement as he had described what he wanted.

He had worried that the earrings were too silly and childish but went ahead with it because ultimately, he felt that it would appeal to Tony’s whimsical side and his love for his bots. Watching Tony’s excited smile as he showed off the earrings, Steve thought he made the right choice. 

That moment of happiness was disrupted by a haughty-looking man pushing his way to the front of the stage and shouting, “I object! This should be against your one gift per person rule! They’re not even the same kind of things!”

Steve remembered him as the guy whose gifts of multiple cars by different makers had ultimately been rejected by Tony. It had been a ridiculous choice for a gift considering how Tony tended to customize his own cars and had a preference for Audis anyway, but Steve still felt a squirm of uncertainty deep in his gut at this complaint. It was legitimate. Compared to a collection of cars, it was even harder to sell his gifts as a single present considering his only theme tying them all together was that they were made by him. He looked at Tony with some trepidation. 

But Tony didn’t even look the least bit torn. He only rolled his eyes and declared loudly, “My Courting Ceremony is not a democracy, you don’t get a vote here. Objection overruled.”

When the man looked like he was about to complain, Happy stepped forward and said, “Mister, get your hands off the stage and step back.”

When a few security personnel started making their way towards him, the man reluctantly stepped away with a disgruntled frown. 

Tony didn’t look fazed in the slightest. He turned back to Steve with a grin and then looked into the box with interest. “What’s next then?”

For the first time since Tony took the stage, he seemed genuinely interested and excited, like a kid on Christmas morning ready to dive into his gifts. It was a side of Tony that Steve treasured and absolutely loved to see. There was something about his enthusiasm and delight which was often hard to resist. 

Then Steve remembered what was next in the box and froze. Tony paused as he peered into the box, before he lifted the last items with a sort of reverence that was better suited for a Rembrandt. 

“Your sketchbooks,” Tony murmured, touching the deep blue cover of the first sketchbook. 

The sketchbook was still in good condition but clearly well-loved; its cover was a little creased and there was a coffee ring stain on one corner when Thor had accidentally left his coffee mug on top of the sketchbook once. Most of the other sketchbooks were in similar condition, with a couple suffering a little more damage to the cover when Steve had unwisely taken them along for some sketching during those hurry-up-and-wait missions. 

Steve had never let anyone look through his sketchbooks. They had been the source of Tony’s intense curiosity but Tony had never pushed either, seeming to recognize how private they would be. 

The moment Tony cracked open the sketchbooks, he would know the truth. 

Steve wasn’t used to the courting methods of the modern day, where there wasn’t necessarily any formal declarations of intent, of how serious the courting would be. So he had declared his intent in the only way he knew how for a situation like this. After Tony flipped through the pages, there would be no denying Steve’s feelings and how seriously he was taking this.

What Steve didn’t really take into account was where this was happening. He thought he would have some time to say a few words to Tony, to maybe explain himself. He didn’t expect to be on a big stage, spotlights on, and with thousands of eyes trained on them both. 

Oh god, what had he been thinking?

Maybe this was a good thing. He wasn’t very good with words anyway, Steve thought with some hysteria. 

Tony opened the sketchbook and for a moment, Steve was terrified that Tony would show the sketches to the camera without looking through them. While he had wanted Tony to know his intent, he didn’t want his heart bared to the world like this. 

But to Steve’s uncertain relief, Tony only kept flipping, head bowed and eyes trained on the pages. 

Steve knew what he was seeing, knew every sketch on those pages. Some of those sketches were of buildings and streets, all he could allow himself to focus on when he first came out from the ice. Then interspaced between the landscapes were his past, sketches of Bucky, Peggy, Colonel Phillips, Erskine, his mother…

Slowly, the Avengers team made their way onto the pages. There was a sketch of Nat’s profile as she looked out the window, cradling a mug. Some were just random parts of people, like a sketch of Thor’s braids and how his hair fell, or Clint’s forearm in a new brace he was wearing. 

Then, there was Tony. Tony’s inclusion in the sketchbook appeared in high frequency right from the moment the Avengers met for the first time. In the beginning, Steve had told himself that it was just irritation that kept Tony on the forefront of his mind and that was why he kept drawing Tony over and over again. And maybe that was true at some point near the start of their rocky acquaintance. 

But that changed over time and the sketches did too. The early sketches of Tony were all arrogant smirks and angry frowns. These slowly evolved into sketches where Tony was quiet, still, laughing in pure joy with an arm around Rhodes, mock scolding DUM-E with an affectionate grin on his lips. There were pages and pages dedicated to his eyes, bright and lively and never good enough on paper, always missing something essential that Steve could see in real life but couldn’t come close to depicting. He painstakingly drew every single provocative eyelash around those dark mesmerising eyes, drew every single line on Tony’s infuriatingly handsome face, but never came close to being satisfied with the results. 

Steve knew that his feelings for Tony came through bright and clear from what he had put down on those pages. Even when they were apart, when they had their own Civil War, Steve had drawn Tony compulsively, sketched him from memory, drew him from what he found in newsfeeds. 

He couldn’t be more open about his feelings and he had done it on this stage, in front of so many people, where Tony might feel compelled to let him down gently, or might burst into confused laughter. 

It was the bravest, most stupid thing Steve had ever done and he wasn’t sure he would do it any other way even if he was given a chance to choose again, even as he sat there, staring at Tony and braced for anything. He was here to court Tony and he wanted to do this right, even if it might end in public humiliation, no matter how gently Tony let him down. 

Tony’s head was still bent over the sketchbooks, his face unreadable as he leafed through the second book. Steve wondered what the headlines would say if he passed out on stage. _Captain America: Killed by Tension?_

Happy leaned over Tony’s shoulder and whispered something into his ear. That seemed to cause Tony to snap out of his trance because he straightened and cleared his throat. He seemed to be blinking rapidly as he licked his lips in an unusual display of nerves. 

“Right, they’re...they’re beautiful. Amazing... Thank you, Steve,” Tony said, eyes bright and wide, but unreadable to Steve’s panicked gaze when Steve was usually able to communicate with Tony without a single word. He had no idea what Tony was thinking right now. 

Happy leaned down and whispered something else, a little sharp. This made Tony blink and clear his throat again. He opened the first sketchbook and flipped through the pages, before turning the sketchbook around so Steve could see which one he had stopped at. Finally, they were in sync again because Steve could clearly read the question in Tony’s eyes; he wanted to know if Steve was fine with Tony showing this particular sketch to the world. 

It was a carefully shaded sketch of Tony in the Iron Man suit, faceplate lifted as he munched on a donut held in one gauntlet, a little icing smeared on the corner of his lips. There was a faint bruise around one eye and the armor was clearly badly damaged from whatever recent fight they just had. Tony had chosen the sketch well, nothing too revealing or vulnerable for either of them. The knot in Steve’s stomach loosened at Tony’s careful consideration of Steve’s feelings, the way he thought about how Steve would feel showing his art to the world when he had kept it secret from everyone before this. Steve had no doubts that if he shook his head, Tony would find a way to avoid displaying any of this to the audience. 

But Steve wasn’t ashamed that he had drawn Tony, and there wasn’t anything too personal in this sketch. So Steve nodded with a small smile and Tony flipped it so that it was facing the audience.

“I think he captured me perfectly,” Tony announced. “Sexy, right?”

That earned laughter from the crowd, all of them still eating out of Tony’s palm even as they stared entranced at this unusually long gifting on stage. 

“I hope you like the gifts, Tony,” Steve said in a quiet voice, smiling at him. 

Tony looked him in the eye and said, “You know, I really do.”

They looked at each other, trying to gauge the unspoken words between them, until suddenly Happy’s loud and obnoxious throat-clearing broke them out of their mutual reverie.

“Thank you for the gifts, Steve,” Tony said, unusually serious and even sincere. 

Steve smiled. “It was my pleasure.”

Shaking his head, Tony laughed. “You smooth operator, you. Get out of here.”

Getting up off his stool, Steve gave Tony a crisp salute, earning another one of those beautiful happy laughs and then Steve was off the stage, passing the next suitor who was on her way up. 

At least the gifts were done then. 

Steve was quickly swarmed by his friends, receiving back thumps and shoulder clasps. 

“You did great up there,” Bucky said, sounding relieved, which Steve would be more offended by if he wasn’t equally relieved and surprised that it hadn’t all gone pear-shaped. 

Which reminded him… Frowning, Steve said grimly, “Now for the _dancing_.”

Everyone around him winced, which was a terrible sign. 

# # # # # #

The flow of gifts continued for another half an hour, but Tony wasn’t as vivacious as he was for the remainder of the suitors. He seemed a little distracted, looking through his audience instead of at them. When the last suitor had finally deposited their gift, Tony stood up again to address the crowd. 

“Alright, uh, as I said earlier, now it’s time for a masquerade,” Tony said, glancing around without really settling on anything. “Everyone will be given masks, but I’ll only be dancing with suitors I have accepted gifts from. Suitors, your bands will continue to issue instructions. But feel free to dance with anyone you like otherwise. Now, let’s turn up the volume in here, F.R.I.D.A.Y..”

The soft background music from the speakers increased in volume, overwhelming the drone of people chattering. There were people in uniform going through the crowd, quickly handing out masks to every one of the attendees. 

Steve received a solid black mask that covered his entire face, allowing sight through almond-shaped eyeholes. A sharp golden V drew down from the eyeholes to the tip of where his nose would be beneath the mask, giving the impression of a beaked mask. A fine black and golden striped feather curled up from one side of the mask and it tilted at a jaunty angle when he pulled the mask on. The mask stayed on perfectly when he pulled the black velvet straps over the back of his head. He suspected they weren’t regular straps when they seemed to automatically adjust their length on their own, pulling the mask closer into place over his face, ensuring a snug fit. 

It was mostly classical music playing, and Steve noticed that many people started pairing off immediately, as if eager to show off their dancing skills to Tony or maybe to the other people present. Many seemed to have taken to heart Tony’s idea of making this a Courting Ceremony for everyone. 

Steve felt stiff with discomfort. The band on his wrist buzzed and he looked down. It said, ‘Free dance.’

He really wasn’t up for it.

Suddenly, there was a guy in front of him with a deep blue mask that had silver filigree. Steve could recognize Bucky anywhere, from his scent, from his movement, didn’t need to see his face to know who it was. And of course, because it was Bucky, he grabbed Steve’s hands and placed them in the standard dancing positions.

“No, this is a bad idea,” Steve said, trying to pull away but Bucky held on tight. He noticed distantly that his own voice sounded different, realized that the mask had some kind of voice modulator embedded in it to help disguise their identities. 

“Come on, maybe we can try some last minute lessons here,” Bucky said, sounding resigned, his usually soothing Beta scent souring with a hint of anxiety. “Now, move, come on, you go. Yeah, count it, one, two three, one, two, _oww_ , fuck, one, fucking hell.”

It went on for a bit before Bucky pulled back with a wince. “Holy shit, Steve, I think you broke my little toe with that move. What the fuck?”

“I didn’t ask you to dance with me,” Steve said, unable to sound anything but sulky.

“You’re up next, birdbrain. I need to rest my little toe,” Bucky called out and gestured at a guy with a red mask, presumably Sam.

The others had been watching a few feet away, the better to be entertained while avoiding Steve’s dangerous trampling feet.

It was indeed Sam, and he groaned and moaned his way through his dance with Steve, making it all of two minutes. His scent remained steady though, light and earthy, so Steve knew Sam was mostly being dramatic. Natasha in a deep green mask was nimble enough to avoid Steve’s lethal feet, but that meant Steve made no progress at all with learning to dance since he mostly stumbled around while Natasha avoided his feet. Dancing so close together, if he could call what he was doing dancing, he could smell her amusement.

Steve stopped, feeling his jaw hurt from how much he was clenching his teeth, and the muscles of his back were all stiff from how badly he was holding himself.

“This isn’t working, guys,” Steve said, feeling more miserable than ever.

His friends must agree because they were all a few paces back from him as if afraid they would be trampled by his flailing feet the moment he moved. Before he could slink away to lick his wounds, someone tapped him on his shoulder. He turned and found hands on his own, guiding him into a new slow dance. 

“Hmm, you really are bad at this.”

Steve sighed. “Thanks, Rhodes.”

It was impossible not to recognize one of his own teammates even with all the masks on and even with the voice modulators. The slender build of Rhodes combined with his sharp Alpha scent that reminded Steve of airplane hangars made him instantly familiar, even as Steve struggled to keep up with the simple steps they were going through.

“Don’t worry about the dance for a moment,” Rhodes said, slowing down until they were barely swaying on the spot. “I was sent out here because Tony is having a minor freak out.”

Steve stiffened. “Why? What happened?”

Sighing, Rhodes said, “Because he still can’t wrap his mind around you getting up on that stage and proposing to court him. And then showing him all your sketchbooks. You never let everyone flip through your sketchbooks, and you gave them all to him.”

“Oh, I’m… I didn’t mean to stress him out,” Steve said, feeling a little dejected. 

“Eh, he probably deserves some of that stress after the mad caper that he turned his own Courting Ceremony into. Pepper probably has an ulcer after the past couple weeks.”

It was pretty irritating not being able to read Rhodes’ face, to gauge how serious he was being and to gather some clues as to the direction of this conversation. 

“Did he ask you to come out here?” Steve guessed. 

“That he did,” Rhodes admitted. “He wanted me to assess how serious you are.”

Steve had to force his hands not to tighten on Rhodes’ hold and to keep his spine from snapping straight and stiff. “I’m very serious.”

“I didn’t ask you,” Rhodes pointed out with a casual shrug. “I already know you’re serious. Probably the whole world knows you’re serious except Tony Stark.”

“Oh... So why are you dancing with me?” Steve asked, a little confused. 

Rhodes said with mischief in his voice, his dark eyes amused even through the mask’s eyeholes, “So that I can tell him that I spoke to you and I know you’re serious.”

That was...technically true. Steve laughed ruefully, aware that both Tony and him seemed destined to be managed by their respective Jameses at every turn. 

After they danced, or at least attempted to dance, for a few more minutes, Rhodes excused himself with a faux bow, wincing a little as he walked away on trodden feet. Although Steve felt a little reassured that Rhodes didn’t seem to be against his courtship, he was still pretty terrified at the complete lack of progress he was making when it came to dancing. 

Why did there have to be a masquerade and dance component? Maybe Steve could take off his jacket and shirt and join in the mud-wrestling later to win back approval from Tony...

Maybe M’Baku would be mud-wrestling as well, and Steve could show Tony that when it came to wrestling of any sort, Steve was the winner.

It was like thoughts of M’Baku summoned another familiar Wakandan figure.

“Is that actually something Tony provided, or did you bring your own cat mask, Your Highness?” Steve called out to the man passing by.

The man turned and paused. “Steve, is that you?”

Steve nodded, exchanging the Wakandan greeting of crossed arms with T’Challa.

“How did you recognize me?” T’Challa asked curiously, his voice much deeper with the mask’s modulator on.

“Your scent, Your Highness.”

“I see the superserum enhanced your sense of smell as well. And I thought we agreed you would call me T’Challa.”

“But it’s a formal setting here,” Steve said with a grin hidden behind the mask.

T’Challa sighed before saying, “The mask is from Stark. As I’m not a suitor, there is no real need for my anonymity and I suppose he thinks this is funny.”

The black mask was rather cute, with little drawn in cat ears and a smiling whiskered cat face.

“That does sound like his kind of joke,” Steve said, knowing he sounded fond.

T’Challa’s cat mask tilted at Steve, his dark eyes watchful behind the cut-out eyeholes.

“Shall we dance?” T’Challa asked. When Steve hesitated, T’Challa continued, “I know you are here as a suitor to Stark. From your earlier panic, I think I might be able to give you pointers.”

Deciding that he needed all the help he could get, Steve stepped forward into T’Challa’s arms. 

“I’m not sure I want to be breaking any royal feet today,” Steve said quietly, trying to hide the anxiety in his voice.

“I don’t think I want you to be breaking any royal feet _any_ day,” T’Challa said, wry. But his scent remained serene, the welcoming and warm Omega smell, with threads of grass and the open air.

“I’ll do my best,” Steve said, looking down at his feet.

T’Challa shook his head sharply. “Look at me, not my feet. If you look at my feet, you will step on them instead of avoiding them. Talk to me about something. How has the ceremony been for you?”

Steve tried to distract himself, tried to focus on T’Challa’s chosen topic. He suddenly realized there was something that he wanted to raise. “It was fine. Got a little intense at times. M’Baku was a suitor at the ceremony too. I didn’t—” Steve cut himself off, cut off his seething anger at the memory of M’Baku kissing Tony. He forced himself to stick to something that wouldn’t sound accusatory. “I wasn’t expecting him there.”

“Because he’s together with me?” T’Challa asked, unsurprised.

Steve wasn’t sure if they were still together, but on one of his visits to Wakanda, he had walked in on M’Baku backing T’Challa up against a wall, large hands cradling T’Challa’s head. The way T’Challa’s hands had been tangled in M’Baku’s furs, pulling him down so that their lips met, had been telling.

“Are you still together?” Steve asked, telling himself that this was for research. He needed to know his competition. He wasn’t _jealous_.

“We are,” T’Challa said with a nod of his head. “I don’t believe you’re aware, but in Wakanda, it is not unusual for Omegas to have multiple partners. I am also with Nakia.”

T’Challa gestured at his ears, turning his head so Steve could see both lobes one at a time. On one side, there was an ear stud of a finely carved roaring ape, probably made of the famous Jabari wood Steve had heard about. On the other side was a gleaming green stud, a painted knot that Steve thought he had seen on Nakia before. Now that he was standing so close to T’Challa, he could smell the waft of M’Baku’s earthy scent, the smell of cold fresh snow, intertwined with Nakia’s fiery scent of waiting ambers buried in ash. They were coming from the earrings.

He remembered the Scentears salesperson talking about how they had been inspired by Wakandan earrings, but he hadn’t realized that there must be some Wakandan Courting ritual tied in with the earrings as well, involving wearing their partners’ symbols and scents. 

“I wasn’t aware,” Steve said, although a lot of things made more sense now. But it hardly made him feel better. “So you want Tony to join the three of you.”

“You cannot deny that he would be a great addition,” T’Challa said, giving Steve a sly look out of the corner of his eyes.

Steve had to grit his teeth and look away. What the hell did he have to offer Tony over T’Challa, Nakia and M’Baku, the combined trio that included royalty, intelligence and power.

T’Challa continued, voice a little softer, “But to be honest, M’Baku did not consult Nakia and myself before he entered as a suitor. It’s a surprise to me as well. I’m almost certain that while his interest in Tony is genuine, he has no interest in a long relationship with him since he did not speak to us first. We were led to believe that such a ceremony as tonight’s is likely to be mostly scripted and a short term distraction. If M’Baku was more serious, he would put more effort into drawing Tony’s attention instead of spending his time bedding as many people as possible here.”

“What? Wait, do you mean...he’s had sex with some of the people here? _Tonight_? When has he had the time?” Steve asked, confounded.

“M’Baku moves fast. And you’ve seen how he looks. He is a very attractive man,” T’Challa said with a sigh. “And one with a terrible sense of humor. He has been telling people it’s a Jabari custom to find as many willing partners as possible during Courting Ceremonies. Please don’t believe him. Wakanda has no custom that involves fucking as many people as possible in one Courting Ceremony.”

It was a bit disconcerting to hear the word ‘fucking’ fall from T’Challa’s lips, said in an unfamiliar voice that had been changed by his mask but with that familiar self-possessed cadence and air of nobility. 

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Steve said a little faintly.

Then, T’Challa’s bracelet of beads glowed slightly and he read the text that projected above the main bead.

“M’Baku has joined the mud-wrestling contest and Nakia is suggesting we change his mind about his so-called Jabari customs,” T’Challa said, sounding amused through his mask.

Realizing that T’Challa was drawing their dance to a close, Steve stiffened at the idea of having to figure out how to dance with someone else. He must have turned into a block of wood mid-turn and almost stepped on T’Challa’s feet, because T’Challa abruptly stopped and gently removed Steve’s stiff hands from his waist and shoulder.

“Are you going to ask him not to mud-wrestle?” Steve asked, stiff, trying to take his mind off the fact that he would surely be dancing with Tony soon.

“I’ll be joining in and pinning him to the ground,” T’Challa said serenely

That startled a short bark of laughter from Steve, even though he still mostly stood there awkwardly.

Taking one look at Steve, T’Challa must have felt some pang of sympathy because he leaned in close and said, “Steve, calm down. You need to steady yourself.”

Steve drew a deep breath, trying to take his advice. He forced his shoulders to drop and said, “It’s fine. I’m alright.”

“You look like you are being sent to your execution, and I can see that without even seeing your face,” T’Challa pointed out wryly. “Although on second thought, you would probably welcome that more than this dance it seems.”

“I really can’t dance,” Steve said, a little plaintive.

“Did you realize that you did mostly well when we were dancing together?” T’Challa asked.

Steve blinked, coming out of his fog of worry to realize that T’Challa was right, they had danced fine together. It wasn’t like Steve was pulling out fancy moves or dancing with new grace. He had just managed to avoid stepping on T’Challa’s feet and had managed to sway mostly to the rhythm, which was more than he achieved with any of the others.

T’Challa leaned in and murmured, “The secret is for you to let Tony lead. Don’t overthink it, don’t stare at your feet. Most of everyone will expect you, the big Alpha in the room, to want to lead, which is what happened when you danced with your friends as well. So they all tried to let you take the lead. But, like myself, Tony has probably been trained since he was a child to dance in any situation, in any position. If he leads, you need only follow. It will be easier.”

Let Tony lead and Steve just needed to follow. 

Steve smiled. He could do that. 

“Thank you, T’Challa,” he said with warm gratitude. 

T’Challa nodded, somehow managing to make it regal despite the cute cat mask. “May your courtship be blessed.”

“Thanks, I’ll need all the blessing I can get,” Steve said wryly. 

Chuckling, T’Challa made his way towards the exit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Coaster made the comment that there's going to be so much speculation in the news and by the public as to the content of the sketchbooks that Tony stared at for so long. Heh, too true!


	6. To move together

Steve danced with several strangers after that. He didn’t want to be seen as breaking the rules by only sticking to his own friends since the point of the masquerade was for the guests to mingle without knowing anyone’s identity. 

He found it mostly awkward and stressful. He had an easier time dancing with Alphas, following T’Challa’s advice on letting them take the lead. But Betas and Omegas tended to expect him to take the lead when they realized he was an Alpha, and that just led to their hasty decisions to move on to another dance partner when he made a mess out of the dance. 

None of this was doing much for his self-confidence, and he wondered if it was too late to join in the mud-wrestling instead. 

Before he could make a move for the front door, a hand touched his arm and he turned around…

It was Tony. 

So as not to be recognized, Tony had changed out of his provocative waistcoat and was wearing a sleek black suit with an open-collared platinum gold shirt, no tie. That was probably for the best, since the earlier outfit with so much skin on show had a negative effect on Steve’s working brain cells. If Steve had to dance while touching Tony’s bare shoulders...he had to stop thinking about that just so he could remember how to breathe again. Tony also had on a black jester’s mask, with a big painted smile and gold curlicues as extravagant eyelashes. 

But Tony could be covered from head to toe in a burlap sack and Steve would have still been able to recognize him. It was impossible for Steve to be in Tony’s presence and not know without a doubt that this was Tony. There was something about the way he moved, with a grace and energy that was distinctly Tony’s. Then there was his scent, impossible to mistake as any other person’s with how he smelled like a day out in the middle of summer, hot asphalt and fresh air, happiness and warmth all entwined together. 

Tony put a hand out and Steve took it in a daze, wishing in a moment of last minute fretting that he wore a coffee scent after all since they were going to be dancing and standing close together and Tony was going to _smell_ him…

Maybe Steve’s panic and distraction helped, because before he realized it, he had Tony in his arms, their hands clasped together and Steve’s other hand resting around Tony’s waist. Steve felt frozen in place, staring into those bright eyes, large and rimmed with dark lashes, peeking through from behind the eyeholes of his mask. Distantly, he realized the music had started up again, but he couldn’t do anything about it. He had completely forgotten what was involved in dancing. 

Then, he felt the slightest nudge, just a faint pressure against his shoulder where Tony’s hand rested and there was the brush of a knee against his own, and Steve moved accordingly, stepping back. Caught in that sharp gaze, Steve had no time to look at his feet, to fuss about where his elbows were. He found himself automatically following Tony’s lead, moving to the steps based on Tony’s cues. 

“I thought you couldn’t dance,” Tony remarked, casual. The voice modulation on his mask wasn’t on and Steve wondered how anyone failed to recognize that voice. And if not the voice, then how could anyone miss those lovely eyes. 

“I can’t, usually. But T’Challa gave me a tip that I should follow your lead,” Steve said honestly, before a thought occurred to him. “Wait...you know who I am. I thought this was meant to be anonymous.”

Tony huffed out a laugh. “I’ve designed every one of your skintight uniforms, I could recognize you anywhere, in anything, from any angle.”

Steve was surprised by that, but before he could say anything, Tony continued, “I’m going to turn off your voice modulator, it’s driving me crazy expecting to hear your voice and getting this weird not-you voice.”

He lightly tapped a short staccato beat against the lips of Steve’s mask and hummed with satisfaction. Just the feeling of Tony’s fingers so close to his mouth, even through the barrier of a mask, was enough to make Steve’s lips tingle, to wish the mask hadn’t been there at all. Steve realized that must be why Tony wasn’t recognized by his voice as well, he must have had the modulator on earlier.

“I’m glad you’re not using the voice modulator too,” Steve blurted out, possibly sounding kind of stupid. 

“Thanks,” Tony said, in a tone that hinted that he was laughing at Steve. “How about you? You seemed to know it was me even before I spoke.”

“It’s just...your everything,” Steve said. Wow, he really was continuing his trend of sounding stupid. 

Tony shook his head. “I should have known that I couldn’t fool a supersoldier with enhanced senses by just putting on a mask.”

For some reason, that made Steve frown. He said, with unshakeable surety, “I could recognize you anywhere even if I had no enhanced senses.”

Tony lapsed into a short silence at that, eyes watching Steve thoughtfully from behind his mask. They danced to the melodic instrumental music, moving easily with the throngs of other masked dancers with Tony leading the way. For the moment, Steve savored how he had his arms almost completely around Tony, how they were pressed up-close, moving gently to the music, Tony’s scent mixing with his own. Steve wanted to pull Tony close and bury his face in that neck, breathe in deep. But he was happy with what he had as well. Tonight, he was happy here, swaying with Tony to the music. 

Suddenly, he realized that dancing with Tony was actually...easy. It wasn’t stiff, awkward and daunting, all his usual descriptions that he applied to dancing. It was like having Tony here with him made dancing easy, because that was how things were like with Tony sometimes. They fought, they clashed, they had to work through so many issues. But then sometimes, they just clicked into place, on the battlefield, in a conversation, and now, on a dancefloor. They synced up totally, and it was like they just intuitively knew how the other person was going to move. 

“I wanted to be sure,” Tony said out of nowhere. 

And that was how they were together as well. Sometimes, they would move with perfect synchronicity, and then one or both of them would purposefully break that seamless rhythm like a violin’s bowstring snapped in the middle of an exquisite tune. It was like neither of them could let things lie sometimes, couldn’t help but poke and prod at each other. 

Well, it kept things interesting at least. 

“That makes sense,” Steve said carefully in agreement. “That’s what this whole Courting Ceremony is for after all. For you to meet people and be sure about who you chose.”

Tony scoffed. “No, that’s not what this Courting Ceremony is for, and that’s not what I meant. I meant, I wanted to be sure that you’re sure.”

Now Steve was just confused and he said as much. “You want to be sure that I’m sure...about what?”

“About this whole Courting thing!” Tony made to gesture with one hand and almost smacked Steve in the chin with it. He placed it back on Steve’s shoulder with a bit of a sheepish head tilt before continuing, “I just need to be sure that you’re sure. That you’re...serious. Is this just because it’s your first Courting Ceremony? There’s been a news frenzy covering my Courting Ceremony, so are you just swept away by all the hype? You know you don’t have to court _me_ to participate, right?”

Steve asked quietly, “Do you _not_ want me to court you? Because if you don’t want me to…”

Tony cut him off immediately. “Don’t be ridiculous, that’s not what I said. I just...needed to hear again that you’re sure. Very sure.”

After eyeing him up for a moment, Steve asked, “How many reasons did you come up with for why you think I really joined the Courting Ceremony?”

Tony started counting off with the kind of swiftness that meant his genius brain had been churning through this ever since Steve stepped onto that stage, “First possibility, you were swept up by the hype of it. Second, you wanted to give me a safe option in case all the other suitors are crappy and then we could fake date for awhile before we broke up. Third, Bucky or Sam dared you to and you don’t know how to back down from a dare even if that meant marrying someone you didn’t even like that way. Fourth, back in your day, Courting Ceremonies were more about pals being pals. Fifth, there’s a dastardly plan involving my Courting Ceremony and you’re just an Avenger undercover to foil the plans.”

“Okay,” Steve said, tightening his hold around Tony’s waist to stem the flow of words momentarily. He didn’t know if he should be insulted at Tony’s lack of confidence in his feelings or if he should be insulted on Tony’s behalf that all those reasons were more plausible than genuine feelings for him. Either way, Steve couldn’t listen to this anymore. “Okay, first, I wasn’t swept up by the hype of it. The hype...was not what I was used to. Courting Ceremonies used to be private, more personal. And people were saying such lies about you.”

Tony patted him on the shoulder and Steve tried to relax a little, realized he was clenching his teeth at the memory of said lies. “To be fair, most Courting Ceremonies are on a much smaller scale than this. And the talk in the news probably weren’t all lies.”

“They were lies. People shouldn’t talk about you like that,” Steve said in a flare of temper, only quieting down when he noticed someone sending him a startled look over Tony’s shoulder.

“Alright, alright, they’re a bunch of liars,” Tony said soothingly. 

Steve rolled his eyes, knowing when he was being humored, but deciding to move on to the next point. “Second, if all the suitors were crappy, I have confidence you would have just sent them packing. No one makes you do what you don’t want to do, Tony.”

“Damn right they don’t.” Steve couldn’t say for sure but he thought Tony was probably grinning behind the mask from the way the corners of his eyes crinkled. 

“Third, I don’t take every single dare that Bucky and Sam makes.”

“Now that’s a lie for sure. You probably can’t even name a single dare that you didn’t take on.”

Steve ignored that interjection. “Fourth, just pals being pals? What the hell did you think we got up to back in the forties? You know we had sex too, right? And I don’t believe that you didn’t get F.R.I.D.A.Y. to do some research the moment you got off stage if that’s what you were really thinking.”

“Her research could have been wrong,” Tony muttered. 

“And fifth, if there was a dastardly plan of some sort here, you would know about it. You’re an Avenger too,” Steve insisted. 

“On a different coast,” Tony pointed out. 

“Still an Avenger,” Steve said mulishly. 

Tony shook his head. “Fine, if it’s not all those things then… Then...you’re serious?”

“Is that so hard to believe?” Steve asked, before saying softly, “I gave you my sketchbooks. You’ve seen what I draw.”

Too many pages were practically dedicated love notes to Tony, just in art form. It was impossible not to see Steve’s feelings once anyone looked at the sketches. 

“I just… I never guessed,” Tony said, sounding a little weak. 

Steve wanted so badly to ask if Tony felt the same, especially after he had bared his feelings so completely to him. But that wasn’t how this Courting Ceremony worked; he couldn’t ask Tony to tell him now. And he wasn’t sure if he wanted an answer now, if he could deal with a rejection while they were swaying together to the music, arms holding each other, faces close together in intimate conversation. Let this moment last instead, let Steve have this moment before he had to accept reality, before he found out which path his future was to take by the end of the night. 

“Now you know,” Steve said quietly. 

“Now I do,” Tony agreed in the same tone. 

They took a few slow turns, Steve trying to memorize how it felt to have Tony here with him like this, to move together like they were meant to be. Just in case...just in case it didn’t work out...

Something occurred to him, something Tony had said earlier. Steve frowned and asked, “When I said this Courting Ceremony is for you to meet people and be sure about who you chose, you said that wasn’t what it’s for. What is it for then?”

For some reason, Tony’s eyes bored straight into Steve’s at that, which was always a sign that he had something to hide. He sounded casual as he explained, “We needed some big bash to remind the world that the Earth keeps spinning and we’re still alive. A little bit of a pick me up. And for charity as well, to help with some of the rebuilding that’s still going on.”

Steve remembered Natasha saying something about a pick-me-up, but he had been hoping that Tony had a more personal objective behind the Courting Ceremony, that it wasn’t all just for show. 

“Charity?” Steve asked, puzzling over that. “How does charity fit into this?” Unlike most of the Maria Stark Foundation’s charity galas, there had been no entry or table costs.

“Oh right, you probably aren’t so familiar with that part. So a lot of people have presented all kinds of extremely expensive gifts. Since I only get to pick one person, everyone else who signed up to be a suitor will be given a choice to get their courting gift back or donate it to charity. It’s considered quite gauche for the filthy rich to ask for their gifts back, so the vast majority of the gifts will end up donated to charity or sold so that their proceeds are donated to charity,” Tony explained with an airy shrug. 

Steve imagined his sketchbooks with all his private art auctioned off for charity, imagined strangers leafing through the pages where he had spent hours bent over Tony’s face or hands or shoulders or calves…

He had to suppress a shudder at that. No matter how gauche, he would be asking for his gifts back, if… Well, if. He would probably be too heartbroken to dwell on those sketchbooks in any case. 

“I didn’t know that was a common practice. Back in our day, the one being courted kept all their suitors’ gifts, even the ones they didn’t choose at the end,” Steve said a little faintly, distracted. It had been unusual Courting Ceremony behavior that Tony had accepted and rejected gifts, instead of just accepting it all and making a final decision later.

“That’s still common for the most part, but big Courting Ceremonies like this or those televised reality courting shows tend to have different etiquette,” Tony explained. 

Steve asked, a little quietly even as his hand tightened inadvertently on Tony’s, “So there was no other reason you held the Courting Ceremony?”

“I thought it was unlikely for me to wind up with a true match at this point in my life,” Tony said, still looking at him straight on. 

That was a classic Tony Stark obfuscation if Steve had ever heard any, so Steve asked more directly, “What was your other reason for holding this Courting Ceremony then?”

“Why does it matter? The main thing is all that charity moolah that rolled in,” Tony insisted. 

“Come on, Tony,” Steve said, and that mildly coaxing tone was enough to break Tony’s silence on the matter. 

Tony sighed and looked away finally, before mumbling, “I heard you haven’t been to a Courting Ceremony before.”

Steve blinked, confused. He opened his mouth and shut it again. Then he realized that Tony couldn’t see his reaction and finally tried, “What...what does that have to do with your Courting Ceremony?”

“Bucky told Nat who told me that you haven’t been to any Courting Ceremonies before, not as an adult. She said you only went to a few when you were too young to even participate,” Tony said in a rush of words. 

“That’s...true. But what does that have to do with anything?” Steve asked, completely baffled now. 

“Look, I might think most Courting Ceremonies are no longer sincere and consists of antiquated practices better left in the past, but I’ve still attended a lot of them. Everyone has attended a lot of them. It’s part of growing up and part of life,” Tony said, sounding a little agitated. “Everyone should have ridiculous Courting Ceremony memories to talk about and reminisce over, even if it’s just to say that you’ll never attend one of those crazy parties ever again. And the modern day version has so much going on, I can’t believe you haven’t attended any before.”

Tony was almost waving their clasped hands around at this point. This new information just left Steve reeling. 

“That’s why you opened it up to everyone earlier, allowed courtship of other people at your ceremony,” Steve said with dawning realization. “Were you trying to set me up with someone?” Steve asked abruptly, trying to process all of this. 

“I didn’t— I didn’t think that far,” Tony admitted. “I just thought you would have a good time, eat some good food, experience how the whole deal was like without any pressure. I didn’t think you would actually want to court someone at one of these things. It didn’t seem like your kind of thing.”

“So you threw a huge Courting Ceremony that’s so big, you had to host it at Flushing Meadows, just so I can experience one from the sidelines, without any pressure?” Steve said in near disbelief. 

“It wasn’t the primary reason!” Tony protested, before mumbling, “Just one of many, many other reasons.”

“But...why didn’t you just invite me along to someone else’s Courting Ceremony?”

That seemed to offend Tony. He huffed, “Because I can’t guarantee the standards of someone else’s Courting Ceremony. What if they served fake crab meat and played Bieber all night? What kind of first experience would that be for you?”

“Tony... Tony, that’s crazy,” Steve said, but he was smiling and he knew his smile must be visible in his voice or eyes somehow, because he felt Tony relax, saw his nervous attempt to brazen through being caught out turn into smug satisfaction.

“Is it really though? Is it crazy for me?” Tony asked with a smirk. 

“That disqualifies almost anything if we’re going by your standards of crazy,” Steve acknowledged, shaking his head with a small laugh. 

“And admit it, it’s a _great_ Courting Ceremony,” Tony said in a wheedling tone. “You’re having a good time.”

Steve teased, “Well, when I heard there was going to be _dancing_ , I had a mini panic attack, if that’s what counts as a good time.”

“I figured it was time you had your dance and that maybe I could teach you a few moves,” Tony said blithely. 

Tilting his head, Steve considered this. “So you organized a massive Courting Ceremony so I could experience one _and_ so you could teach me how to dance?”

Tony hummed. “When you put it that way, it does seem a little much.” But he didn’t sound repentant at all. In fact, he sounded like he was grinning.

“You could have just asked me out for a dance,” Steve said, feeling a little bold, feeling his chest tighten in anticipation. 

“You could have just asked me out for dinner instead of signing up as a suitor and showing me all your secret pining art,” Tony pointed out with a warm laugh, smelling like melted butter in a pan in a spike of clear delight. 

In a moment of great daring, Steve drew Tony closer until they were pressed chest-to-chest and asked softly, “Does that mean I know who you’ll pick at the end of the ceremony?”

“Now, now, Steve...that would be cheating,” Tony murmured, eyes glittering with happiness as he leaned in and rested the side of their faces together. The move was hindered by the masks that they still had on, but it was clearly an attempt to rub their cheeks together, share scent, and Steve revelled in the gesture coming from Tony. 

Then Tony pulled away, and away again until he was standing arms’ length apart from Steve. His eyes were still bright as he said, “See you later, Steve.”

And before Steve could tighten his hold on Tony’s hands, Tony had slipped out of his grasp and moved into the crowd of people around them. Steve stared after Tony, tracking his bobbing head and scent until he was finally lost among the people. 

It was good Steve still had his mask on because his wide, almost manic grin might have scared off a few people.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's a bit short this week, but next week is the last chapter + epilogue + more feeeeeelings. 
> 
> Bucky mentions Steve not having gone to a Courting Ceremony before back in Chapter 1, in case anyone wonders where that came from. :)


	7. The last announcement

The rest of the masquerade and dance portion of the evening passed in a daze. Steve didn’t suddenly dance any better, but he did feel like he was floating on cloud nine, and he was no longer stressed about how awkwardly he was dancing or whether he stepped on anyone’s feet. He just didn’t care if he danced badly or stepped on anyone really. 

All he could think about was that Tony organized all this because of him. 

Yes, because of charity and giving the country something to talk about. But also, because of Steve.

His eyes would catch on a particularly elegant mask and think, “That’s because of me.”

The beautiful arched legs of the tables on the side made him think, “That’s because of me.”

All the graceful couples and groups spinning together and laughing as they danced the night away buoyed him with thoughts of, “That’s because of me.”

It was absurd and self-centered, but the idea that any part of this was indirectly a result of Tony thinking that Steve should experience an extravagant Courting Ceremony warmed Steve to the core. 

Tony thought about him. Tony took in little bits of information about him and tried to give him something based on what Tony learned about him. 

Sure, Tony did this all the time, not just with Steve. They all did, because they were a team and friends and they watched out for each other. 

But this, this whole event, the fact that it was a Courting Ceremony… It was more than what the team normally did for each other. Surely this was significant. 

Surely he wasn’t reading too much into this? 

The dance part of the masquerade ended without Steve even noticing, only blinking when he realized that there were wait staff in uniform collecting the masks and whisking them away on large trays, only to come out again with more trays of food and drinks. Steve drifted to a spot against a wall, absently eating and drinking without tasting or really seeing a single thing. 

When his friends found him, they told him that the mud wrestling was still happening outside and that things were getting more exciting now that M’Baku had been taken out of the fight by T’Challa, which meant a more even playing field for the remaining participants. There was a free square where Suitors — those who were courting Tony or trying to attract the interest of anyone else — were demonstrating any special skill they had to the people watching. 

The orchestra had been replaced by a band some time during Steve’s complete distraction, a group called Steely Dan according to Sam. Natasha informed him that a little stage was also set up outside as well for magic tricks as a different form of entertainment. That had Steve wondering if Tony had arranged for that because he knew Steve found sleight of hand and the magic tricks that seemed almost like mindreading fascinating. 

“The poor guy, do you think he’s traumatized from the dancing?” Sam asked. “He seems so out of it.”

Bucky sighed. “Maybe he broke Tony’s foot.” Slinging an arm around Steve’s shoulder, Bucky tried to cheer him up by saying, “It’s okay, buddy, Tony isn’t going to hold that against you. He’s forgiven you for much worse after all.”

Steve only said, “Let’s go watch the magician.”

He ignored the concerned looks they exchanged and headed out. 

In between thoughts of Tony and what all this meant, Steve clapped and cheered at some of the amazing magic tricks on stage. They went in for more food and drinks again much later in the night, Steve contributing nothing whatsoever to the conversation going on because his mind just kept replaying every sentence he had exchanged with Tony, examining every word from every angle. 

Before he had come to any firm conclusion, there was a short announcement from Happy calling everyone back into the hall for the final moment of the Courting Ceremony: Tony’s choice.

Steve made his way to the front, polite but firm as he moved through the tight press of people until he was right in front of the stage, his friends trailing behind him. No doubt someone will complain to the news that the Avengers were rude and pushy, but he couldn’t spare a single thought for that. 

Instead, Steve only got right up to the stage and looked up in time to see Tony striding onto the stage. Thankfully, he was still wearing his black suit with the open collared golden shirt, and he hadn’t changed back into his dark red waistcoat with no shirt attire. At least that meant Steve had more working brain cells to spare. 

“Hello, everyone,” Tony greeted with a blinding grin. “It’s time for the most exciting part of the event: Which Pokemon I’m going to choose.”

The reference obviously made sense to some, since there was a smattering of laughter, but Steve had only heard about Pokemon in passing before without knowing what it meant, so the joke went over his head. But he didn’t care. He didn’t care if he didn’t understand anything else for the rest of the night, as long as he got to hear who Tony was choosing. 

Steve stared up at Tony’s face in rapt attention, his whole body completely still as he hoped with every fiber of his being that this would be the start of something new with Tony. 

Hoped that it would be him Tony chose. 

God, let Tony choose him, _please_. 

Tony looked around the audience and took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. “I have to admit… I had a whole speech planned out. Regardless of who I chose, there was this whole spiel I had about what an amazing universe we live in, and life being worth living, how we have to keep going and moving, how we couldn’t let things get us down for good no matter how astronomically weird it gets. If we stop living, then ultimately, we’ve lost, no matter how many lives we’ve saved.” He tapped against his chest, a nervous tic he fell back to when he wasn’t sure about what he was doing. 

“This Courting Ceremony was because I thought that the country needed a little bit of a pick me up, a reminder of what we still have and what we should be celebrating: Life. We have to keep living. Sometimes, it feels like we’ve forgotten how. 

“I didn’t really expect to find anyone here, not a true match anyway. Maybe a nice someone to date, but I’m too old to be expecting to meet the person I want to spend the rest of my life with, and who wants to spend any length of time with me, at a Courting Ceremony,” Tony smiled, self-deprecating, before shaking his head. “But life goes by its own plans and something unexpected happened. Or at least... _someone_ happened. I didn’t think…”

And the always fluent Tony, who always had a quip and a smart comeback on the tip of his tongue seemed at a loss of words. A hushed silence fell across the thousands of people staring up at the stage, feeling the unexpected weight of the moment, realizing Tony’s seriousness after all his previous flippancy. 

Tony looked around the crowd, wide eyes blinking like he was in shock himself, like he couldn’t understand how he got there. Then his wandering gaze settled on Steve, standing right there in front of the stage, waiting for him. Haplessly, Steve smiled up at him. Tony looked at him like he was captivated, like he couldn’t believe he was seeing Steve here, even after their dance. Then Tony took a deep breath, never breaking eye contact with Steve. 

“Let’s not keep everyone waiting, hey?” He stepped forward to the front of the stage and bent at the waist, stretching an arm out. Smiling, his eyes bright with warmth and happiness, Tony asked, “Do you want to join me on stage, Steve?”

There was a collective gasp that broke out across the crowd, but Steve paid that no attention at all. He was grinning when he placed his hand in Tony’s, letting Tony give him a boost up onto the stage. But Steve felt so light that he thought he could float right up without exerting any strength whatsoever. He stood there, holding Tony’s hand and staring into his dancing brown eyes. 

“Hi,” Steve said softly, knowing it was an absolutely stupid thing to say, but not caring at all when he saw how Tony grinned back at him. 

“Hi, Steve,” Tony said, laughing. “Say hi to everyone else.”

Steve finally turned to see the audience, captivated by the two of them. He could already see people with phones and cameras out, taking photos and videos. At least they would definitely have this moment commemorated, probably from multiple angles. Ducking his head a little, Steve gave an awkward wave of his hand. 

Looping an arm around Steve’s waist, Tony said to the audience, “In case you’ve been living under a rock, I just want to be very clear that I’m choosing Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America. Thank you for coming to my Courting Ceremony and for bearing witness to the start of our courtship.” He flung out his free hand, making a V with his index and middle finger. 

There was a moment of stunned silence, the wide space packed full of people completely still as they took this all in. 

Then a sharp whistle pierced the air and Bucky’s voice rang out, “You go, Steve!”

Steve laughed at that and the shocked moment passed, breaking into a cacophony of noise. Tony blew a kiss out to the audience, to the rising applause and cheers. Meanwhile, Steve’s mind was almost spinning from the realization that Tony’s arm was around his waist, which in turn made all of this sink in. 

Tony accepted his courtship. Tony accepted _him_.

They were _courting_. 

Steve couldn’t keep his eyes off Tony, didn’t even care about the audience. So when Tony turned to face him, Steve could see the moment Tony shed his public mask and gave him a soft look, just for him. “Want to get out of here?” Tony asked hopefully. 

“Yes,” Steve said, simply, and watched from up-close as glittering nanites spread across Tony’s chest and stretched out over his body, crawling up his neck and cheeks until Tony was enveloped in the Iron Man armor. 

“Let’s go for a ride,” Tony said through the helmet. Distantly, Steve noted that the crowd was clapping thunderously and wolf-whistling at them. Somewhere in this large crowd, his friends must be going crazy with excitement. Steve felt almost euphoric with happiness as he looked around the cheering audience and then at that familiar gold faceplate from up-close. 

In a move born from experience in the battlefield, Steve looped an arm around Tony’s shoulders and stepped onto one of the metal boots, tightening his hold when he felt Tony lift a few feet into the air. The whine of the repulsors from Tony’s boots and gauntlets filled the air. Then there was a gust of wind as the dome of the building opened up so that there was only the clear night sky above them. Tony’s repulsors flared and they swooped up into the air, out from the hall and spiralled into the star-filled sky. Steve whooped at the rush of wind and speed, while Tony laughed as he spun them in loops and twirls. 

Tony showed off for Steve, like a courting bird shaking out its plumage, and Steve held on tight, soaking up every moment of it. The air burned against his cheeks as they soared upwards before plummeting down, pulling up sharply to skim the surface of East River, breath stolen from his lungs as they spun mid-flight and banked sharply. 

By the time they landed on the rooftop of the Avengers tower, Steve’s hair was a windblown mess and his cheeks were flushed from the experience. Steve wished he didn’t have to let go of Tony before realizing he didn’t have to, not this time. He dropped his arm from Tony’s shoulders but dragged his hand down the red and gold armor until he could twine his fingers with Tony’s gauntlet. The faceplate drew away in a retreat of shimmering nanites to reveal Tony’s wide-eyed stare, fixed on their joined hands. 

“This okay?” Steve asked, wondering if he was moving too fast. 

Tony murmured, “More than okay,” and looked up with a smile. But something wasn’t right, because his smile was a little wobbly at the edges, and he tugged at Steve’s hand immediately, drawing him inside from the landing zone.

As they walked, Steve felt the armor seemingly melt away under his fingers, until he had his hand pressed skin to skin against Tony’s. Steve watched from the corner of his eyes as the armor receded away starting from the tips of Tony’s fingers and shoes, nanites drawing up into the arc reactor until Tony was only wearing his dark suit and platinum gold shirt. 

The glass doors to the penthouse opened silently and Steve trailed after Tony, a little worried about Tony’s quieter mood, which was very unlike him. 

“Welcome home, Sir. Good morning, Steve,” F.R.I.D.A.Y. said, because it was morning. Very early morning. 

“Hi, F.R.I.D.A.Y.,” Steve greeted in turn. 

Tony tugged Steve to the recessed living area and towards a couch, saying, “Hey, F.R.I.D.A.Y., mute all incoming calls please unless it’s a Godzilla level emergency.” He shot Steve a wry look. “Happy is going to be blowing up my phone with complaints that I just bailed out of my own Courting Ceremony and left him to get rid of the guests.”

To Steve’s disappointment, Tony released their clasped hands before he flopped down onto the couch, immediately unbuttoning his suit jacket. Steve chose to sit right next to Tony despite the ample space on the couch. To his relief, Tony didn’t wince or move away, simply shrugged off his jacket and threw it over the back of the couch. He turned to face Steve, right leg tucked up underneath him. 

Tony was looking at him assessingly, eyes dark and almost...melancholic. “Hey,” Tony murmured. 

“Hey, yourself,” Steve said quietly, watchful. 

“Oh, don’t look at me like that,” Tony complained, leaning his cheek against his hand with his elbow propped on the back of the couch. 

“Like what?” Steve asked just to be irritating because it wasn’t fair that they hadn’t even started yet, had maybe just found themselves to be on the same page, but Tony was already looking at Steve like he was saying goodbye. 

Tony sighed and explained, “Sad. Don’t be sad, you don’t even know what I’m about to say.”

“I know I won’t like it,” Steve said stubbornly. Then rallied in a flare of annoyance. “What happened to everything you said during the dance? And on the stage?”

Raising a hand placatingly, Tony said, “They all still apply. Look, I’m just… We just need to talk. We couldn’t really talk much, not when we were surrounded by so many people. And if this is going to be serious, we need to talk about a couple things.”

Staring at Tony, Steve insisted, “It’s going to be serious.”

“Okay, good,” Tony said with a faint flush to his cheeks. “That’s, uh, good to know. It’s serious...for me too. Just so you know.”

It was very good to know, and Steve knew he was impatient sometimes, but he could try this time. He could also cheat a little meantime. He picked up Tony’s hand and cradled it between his own, squeezing. “I’m glad,” he said, simply and sincerely. 

Tony’s flush deepened and he coughed, looking away momentarily. But he didn’t pull his hand away, he didn’t seem at all opposed to the move. The sad look in his eyes had faded a little as well, replaced by mild bewilderment and surprise, like he still couldn’t believe it. Finally, Tony looked at Steve and cleared his throat. 

“Before we agree to a formal courtship, it’s important that we talk about what we expect from this relationship,” Tony said a little stiffly, like he knew these were the right words to say but wasn’t used to saying them. 

Steve frowned. “What we expect?” 

“You know, like whether this is a courtship with the aim to eventually get married if all goes—”

“Yes,” Steve interrupted immediately, then looked down and asked quietly, “Don’t you want to…?”

Tony cleared his throat again, looking a little flustered. “I do. I mean, yes, same. We’re on the same page on that. And then there’s how we’re currently living in different cities, but I think that’s fine, I can relocate any time, if you’re fine with me joining your Avengers team.”

“Or I can move out to Malibu and join your Avengers team instead,” Steve offered. 

“Oh, really?” Tony asked, surprised. 

Steve shrugged. “I don’t mind moving.” Left unsaid but was certainly heard by both of them were the words, ‘as long as I’m moving to be with you.’

Now, Steve could feel Tony holding his hand in return, like he needed the support. Steve squeezed his hand, hopeful that it felt reassuring. 

Taking a deep breath, Tony said, “Then, there’s family.”

“You already know all of my family,” Steve pointed out, thinking about Bucky, Sam and Nat, about the Avengers. Then he thought about Rhodey, Pepper and Happy. “And I know all of yours.”

“I meant...new family,” Tony tried, obviously aiming for subtle before giving up with a huff. He continued more bluntly, “New family between us, I mean. You surely watched some news reel where they called me an old dried up Omega who is no catch at all to any Alpha.”

Steve interrupted with tight anger in his voice, “Your venue was overflowing with suitors so they were clearly _wrong_.”

“Most of my suitors were mostly there for a party and a dance,” Tony corrected, almost gentle. “Most of the people there had no intention of having a serious relationship with me, Steve. Because the vultures on TV weren’t wrong. I’m an older Omega. If you wanted a relationship with children born by an Omega...you won’t have that with me.”

And Steve finally understood why Tony was so antsy, why he looked at Steve with those sad brown eyes. He didn’t expect Steve to stay with him once he knew Tony was too old to be reproducing. 

Tony continued, rambling a little, “I know I look pretty good for my age so it might come as a surprise to you that I’m past the age for child-bearing. It’s something you should think about—”

Steve’s cupped his cheek gently, which cut him off. Looking at the creases at the corner of Tony’s eyes, brushing a thumb over the laugh lines around that expressive mouth, Steve said, “No, I’m not surprised by that. And you look good for any age. You’re gorgeous, Tony, I didn’t think you needed anyone to tell you that.”

Tony’s mouth fell open as he stared and then snapped shut when he couldn’t seem to come up with anything to say. So Steve continued, all the while brushing a thumb against the corner of Tony’s lips, “I never thought I could have children when I was a scrawny, sickly Alpha. And after the serum, life took me down a different path, and children had never been part of what I wanted, not for a long time now. Tony, I want to be with you. That’s all that matters to me.”

Steve wanted nothing more than to lean forward and press his lips to where his thumb was stroking, but he wanted Tony to be very sure about Steve’s position in this. He pulled back and Tony seemed to lean forward, following his retreating hand, which made Steve’s heart skip a beat in joy. 

He reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and pulled out a flat box. 

“I wanted to include this as a gift, but I couldn’t find a way to tie it to the others since it’s definitely not made by my own hands,” Steve said, holding out the box.

Tony blinked and then seemed to shake himself out of his daze. His gaze set on the box, before flicking up to stare at Steve, registering what had been said. Tony smiled in amusement. “You were such a rule-breaker. You shamelessly exploited that one gift per suitor or multiples of the same theme rule.”

“There was this guy who called the shots and overruled all complaints, I heard. Something about it not being a democracy. Quite the tyrant,” Steve said with a shrug and a small grin.

“Yeah, I think that guy’s got ulterior motives,” Tony said wryly, before complaining, “Can I see it yet or are you just going to sit there tempting me with the gift?”

Trying to keep his breath steady, Steve opened the box and held it out. 

Sitting on a red velvet cushion was a matching pair of bracelets, each consisting of three strings of platinum chain twined with silver fabric, with blue sapphires winking up from the chains. 

They were courtship bracelets, metal weaved in with fabric so that the fabric could soak up scents. The bracelets had been worn on Steve’s wrist for days already, so it strongly carried his scent. If Tony wore one of the twin bracelets, it would be a symbol of his acceptance of Steve’s courtship, signalling to the world that Steve was seriously courting him. Steve would wear the other bracelet, so they would be a matched pair, and they would swap the bracelets with each other from time to time to keep the scents fresh.

Steve said, a little quietly, “I know that people don’t wear courtship bracelets during courtships these days, that it’s considered old-fashioned, and if the courtship doesn’t work out, both parties can just drift apart without any overt symbolism to break off the courtship. But I didn’t want any misunderstandings, Tony. I’m serious about this. This isn’t casual dating while we both sort out how we feel. I already know what I want. I’m courting you, and I hope, one day, you’ll agree to bond with me.”

Tony’s eyes were wide, fixed on Steve like he could drill into his brain and read his thoughts. 

“You’re crazy,” Tony said, voice barely above a whisper. “We haven’t even gone on our first date yet.”

“I don’t know, you took me out on my own Courting Ceremony, that seems like a swell date to me,” Steve teased. 

That seemed to break Tony out of his surprise at least, since he rolled his eyes. “You know what I mean.”

“I do,” Steve said evenly, “And I don’t mean we get married and bonded immediately, right now. We’ll figure out if things work during this courtship. But Tony…” Smiling, Steve reached out and circled Tony’s wrist with his fingers, steadied his trembling hand. “Tony, we’ve been through hell together. I _know_ who you are. Courting you isn’t going to change my mind.”

Drawing in a deep breath, Tony murmured, “I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ when everything goes to hell in a handbasket.”

“Same here, when we work things out after climbing out from hell again,” Steve said with a smile. 

“Ugh, I’m supposed to be the one with all the smart comebacks,” Tony complained, before looking down at the bracelet. He looked up from beneath his dark lashes and said, “Well? Aren’t you going to put it on me?”

Steve inhaled sharply at that but didn’t hesitate in putting the box down on his knee and lifting one bracelet out of the box. This time, it was his own hands that were trembling, suddenly shaky from the magnitude of the moment. 

Everything he had done for this crazy night had led up to this moment. Tony was accepting his suit. From here on out, they would be officially courting and the whole world would know how serious they were about it. 

The platinum links and silver fabric went around Tony’s narrow wrist as Steve did up the clasp. It was just the right length, with enough give that it wasn’t tight and uncomfortable against his skin. Seeing his bracelet on Tony... It was breathtaking. He could only hope that one day, Tony would put his own bracelet on Steve too, signalling that the courtship was successful and he was agreeing to an engagement. 

Tony reached over and picked up the remaining bracelet, turning Steve’s hand over so he could put it on him with nimble fingers. Their hands touched, matching bracelets brushing together on their wrists. 

“There, now we match,” Tony said, which was just stating the obvious and was probably a sign of how this had shaken him considering how he hated to state the obvious. 

Steve could smell the faintest waft of his own scent from Tony’s wrist, and he couldn’t help but pick up Tony’s hand and touch the bracelet on that wrist. Giving in to the overwhelming urge, Steve lifted Tony’s wrist to his face, drawing his nose over the skin the bracelet rested against. It was Steve’s more earthy smell mixed in with Tony’s metallic one. 

The scent was intoxicating and Steve couldn’t help but press his lips against Tony’s pulsepoint, resting his mouth there as he felt that heartbeat against his skin and inhaled their entwined scents deep into his lungs. 

“Lovely,” Steve murmured, sounding a little hoarse. 

Tony turned his wrist so that his hand was cupping Steve’s cheek, drawing his face up. Steve didn’t know when it happened, but his eyelids had fallen shut. He opened them again now and looked into Tony’s dark eyes, molten with heat. 

Steve moved forward at the press of Tony’s hand, breathing shallowly when he noticed Tony drawing closer too. Soft pink lips framed by neatly shaved facial hair parted, drawing Steve’s gaze down until he couldn’t look anywhere else as he leaned in and in until…

The kiss was a revelation. 

Every movement and breath was a shock to Steve’s senses. The shape of Tony’s upper lip pressed against his own was a delight, the prickling brush of facial hair against his skin made his stomach clench in excitement. Learning the feel of Tony’s soft, vulnerable bottom lip and how he could hold and suck it between his own lips occupied his entire attention. 

When Tony’s tongue flicked against his own lips, Steve opened his mouth and learned the taste of Tony’s saliva, lips, tongue, mouth. It was breathtaking. This was Tony. He was kissing _Tony_. 

He couldn’t get enough of it. 

Steve had no idea when it happened but Tony was in his lap and their arms were twined around each other, grappling at backs and pulling closer, closer. Nothing was ever going to be close enough, Steve thought in almost delirious panic as he kissed and kissed Tony, let himself be kissed and kissed in turn, desperate for this to never end. 

When Steve followed that jawline, followed that sharp line of a dark goatee with his thumb, all the while still kissing Tony, he felt a low vibration against his lips, against his chest as Tony groaned. Tony’s hand dug into Steve’s hair, scratching lightly into his scalp, and Steve could only sigh into the kiss, part his lips for another taste-test, for more of the same. 

Their kisses slowed eventually, from deeply passionate and exploratory plundering to softly savoring and sweet pecks, always going back for another kiss like they couldn’t quite stand to stop now. Steve rubbed his cheek against Tony’s, unable to resist at all, and Tony responded by dragging his wrists against the sides of Steve’s neck. The mutual scent-marking sent shivers down Steve’s spine and he gasped, to which Tony only rubbed his cheek with enthusiasm against Steve’s ear. 

“Steve,” Tony said in his ear in a long and entirely satisfied exhalation, like he was just luxuriating in how the name rolled off his tongue. 

Steve rubbed their cheeks together before pulling back reluctantly so he could see Tony’s face. “Tony,” he murmured. 

Carding his hands through Steve’s entirely mussed hair, Tony said softly, “I accept your suit. We can begin our courtship.”

It was a formal acceptance. Nowadays, it wasn’t considered a necessary part of courtship anymore, but Steve appreciated Tony following a custom that was more common back in Steve’s childhood days. He had dreamed once of hearing such words from the person he loved; never could he have imagined where life would take him and the amazing person he would hear it from. 

“Thank you,” Steve murmured, touching a thumb to the corner of Tony’s lip in reverent awe, loving when Tony’s soft lips quirked up in amusement. 

“Wait until the media circus lands, you might change your tune then,” Tony said with a sigh, like he expected this piece of information to scare Steve away. 

Steve cheated; he pressed forward for a quick kiss, a beatific press of lips on lips until he felt Tony’s mouth soften, parted. When he pulled back, he felt thrilled at the sight of Tony’s deep eyes looking a little glazed, his worries faded away. 

Smiling, Steve said, “I won’t be changing my tune. It’s always going to be worth it.”

He watched as a faint blush crept over Tony’s cheeks and counted it as a job well done. 

###  **Epilogue**

_“—ablaze with excited babble about how one Steve Rogers has turned up with a mutual engagement bracelet, signalling that the courtship has been successful, and Tony Stark, billionaire, superhero, and, more importantly, designer of the Starkphones extraordinaire, is now engaged to Rogers. That’s it, folks, the two most eligible bachelors in the United States are now officially engaged...to each other. Just our luck._

_“And we have pictures of the engagement bracelet Stark gave to Rogers, if you look here at this ill-gotten paparazzi photograph of Rogers’ wrist… There we have it. Next to the silver, sorry,_ **_platinum_ ** _chain and fabric with sapphires, you’ve got Stark’s fancy twisty gold chain with rubies. That’s right, they are wearing each other’s superhero colors and it doesn’t get soppier than that. It’s so cute and besotted that it’s just embarrassing. The two most famous superheroes we have swanning around, and they’re doing the equivalent of wearing each other’s letterman jackets._

_“There has been talk about how shameless it is for an Omega to put an Alpha in his colors, but that’s so much stupid and the kind of talk that belongs to the medieval times that I’ll just devote two seconds on the topic to say: Piss off._

_“There’s also been talk about how Tony Stark’s Courting Ceremony bonanza that happened more than a month ago wasn’t fair, that there was a clear bias from the start where Stark let Rogers give him more than one Courting gift, after he disqualified someone else for trying to do the same. There were some comments about how he should have been objective and treated everyone the same so everyone had equal chance at courting him. And the extremely quick courtship, ending with Stark reciprocating with a courtship bracelet of his own a little over a month after the Courting Ceremony, is just evidence that this was all rigged._

_“All I can say is that some people really need to get over it and stop being such whiny little wankers. It’s a_ **_Courting gift_** _. Of course it was never going to be objective and fair. People forget what Courting gifts are for. They’re a token of the suitor’s affection. They’re meant to make the person being courted smile and be happy, and that’s it. The reality is that you’re never going to hinge your entire future marriage and bond on a gift someone put together with some sticky tape and cardboard. But you might hinge it on the fact that your favourite person in the world knew that sticky tape and cardboard would make you happy._

_“In the end, Stark was always going to prefer the gift from the person he likes best. And that’s what happened here. It isn’t about a fair competition or whatever bullshit. It’s about love. And I guess we now know who Tony Stark loves best.”_

Steve grinned at the television. “Yeah, that’s me.

“It’s not going to be you for much longer if you don’t come back to bed,” Tony grumbled from his nest of blankets and pillows, enconsed so comfortably in it that he didn’t seem willing to even sit up. 

It was a pretty great nest, although Steve’s opinion might be biased since he was the one who had put most of it together. Nests were meant to be built by the couple as part of the preparation process done together before an Omega’s heat. But Steve had found out early that Tony was a little hopeless at nest building. 

It was a little bit surprising, not because Tony was an Omega and should have some inner instinct for caretaking and homemaking, which was a lot of nonsense. In many ways, Tony didn’t at all fit the usual Omega stereotypes, which was understandable because Steve had never met a single Omega who conformed to all the stereotypes. 

But it was surprising because Tony was pretty good at providing for the team and building things. He always made his healthy but delicious green drinks post-missions. He might be hopeless at cooking anything more than his three standard dishes — cabonara, chicken stew and fried rice — but he always kept the fridge stocked and had take-out arriving just as Steve and Thor realized they were getting hungry. The team were always given weapons and uniform upgrades that worked better than the last in ways that they never even realized were possible. 

But all of that was reliant on Tony’s large brain and his keen observations. He could look at something in a glance and figure out what was lacking, what was needed, what could make things better. 

Apparently, nest-making wasn’t something that his large brain and keen observations instinctively understood.

When Steve had started nesting subconsciously, moving favorite soft pillows from the living room into the bedroom without much thought, Tony had picked up on it immediately. So he had bought new silk bedsheets in red, blue and white. He had tried to pass it off as a joke when Steve had frowned down at it, but Steve had recognized that hint of panic in Tony’s eyes. He was at a loss. 

So Steve had watched as Tony bought new and better and more expensive sheets and pillows and pajamas and robes. Tony had scattered all of these items around their bedroom with haphazard lacklustre. Meanwhile, Steve slowly introduced soft and worn pillows, requested that F.R.I.D.A.Y. disabled the fragrance dispenser in the penthouse for now, brought in the comfortable plush throw from his bedroom that Natasha had given him and he had used regularly. He watched with satisfaction as Tony always sought out the items Steve had brought in until finally, Tony threw his hands up and gave all the newly bought items to charity and declared that nest-making would be Steve’s job.

By that point, their cosy nest was almost complete anyway. 

Steve turned from the television embedded in the wall to look at Tony, hair completely rumpled and standing in wild crazy spikes. There was a pillow crease imprint on his cheek, his goatee less neat than usual since they hadn’t taken any breaks to groom over the last three days of Tony’s heat. Tony smelled delicious, his scent during his heat a siren song to Steve’s senses, a lush tangy taste on Steve’s tongue. It was all the more enhanced by how Steve could smell his own scent wrapped around Tony’s, could feel his Alpha instincts rumble with satisfaction at how they smelled, the two of them, _together_.

The blue throw that was decadently soft was wrapped around Tony’s shoulders, half the pillows in the penthouse and from Steve’s own bedroom propped up behind Tony. On the carpeted floor, Steve had arranged the rest of the pillows along with old towels and soft shirts from both their wardrobes. It had been a good choice; sometimes they didn’t make it back to the bed after a bathroom break. The two armchairs in the room had also been cushioned with pillows — new ones, because Steve had run out of pillows — that had been scent-marked liberally. Those too had been used at some point. 

With the mussed hair and the little squint Tony was directing at the television, Steve found Tony unbearably attractive and adorable. 

“I’m already on the bed,” Steve said, because he couldn’t help teasing as he gestured at where he was sitting at the foot of the bed. 

“But you’re not _in_ bed,” Tony complained, crossing his arms in a sulk. The blue throw slipped off one shoulder and Steve had to wonder if that was on purpose, even as he eyes were drawn helplessly to the dip of Tony’s clavicle, to the elegant lines of Tony’s shoulder. 

Steve said, still distracted, “I just wanted to catch up on some news while you were napping.”

“I wasn’t napping,” Tony denied in a blatant lie, then his frown softened. “Oh, it’s John Oliver and he’s talking about us. I like him.”

Something hot flared in Steve, because Tony’s heat was tapering off, but he was still in heat, and he had just said he liked _someone else_ , someone who wasn’t Steve. He had no idea if John Oliver was an Alpha, Beta or Omega, but it didn’t matter because Tony’s taste ran towards all of them and Tony was still in heat talking about liking someone else. 

Steve tamped down on the possessive surge of feelings, on the urge to start assessing John Oliver as a threat. Something in his gaze must have given him away anyway because Tony was now smirking at him, and that throw had slipped off the other shapely shoulder too, only still hanging on by Tony’s grasp. 

Pushing down on his own stupid illogical Alpha instincts, Steve rolled his eyes at himself because John Oliver was not a threat, he really wasn’t. 

And even if he was, Steve was pretty sure he could take him. Even if John Oliver was smart and funny, all the things Tony liked. But Steve could take him. He was sure of it. 

Steve tapped the off button on the television’s remote control and left it at the foot of the bed. He turned around and crawled forward, knowing he was letting himself be manipulated by Tony’s unsubtle machinations. Grinning, Tony reclined back until Steve crawled right up over him, arms by Tony’s shoulders so that he was hovering just over Tony now. 

“What do you like about him?” Steve asked, unable to help himself. 

“He once called Iron Man a multimillion dollar robot fetish come to life,” Tony responded, eyes bright with amusement and smugness. 

Steve raised his eyebrows. “And you like that?”

“I appreciate a man who isn’t afraid to call Iron Man a giant sex toy. After all, you have to admit, my armor is pretty sexy.”

“It really is,” Steve murmured, and then added, almost absent-mindedly, “I guess John is pretty cute as well.”

Suddenly, Tony’s grin dropped off and he was frowning. “ _John?_ ”

Steve tilted his head, innocent. “Yeah, John. John Oliver. Dark hair, big dark eyes, witty and sarcastic, I can see why you might like him. He’s pretty cute. ”

He had barely finished the sentence before he found a knee shoving against his thigh and he was suddenly flipped over so that he was on his back, Tony sitting astride him instead. Tony’s eyes were hooded. “I know what you’re doing,” Tony muttered. 

The blue throw was knocked askew during that impressive move, only draped over one elbow now. Steve could see the silver, blue, red and gold bracelets on Tony’s other wrist. He picked up that hand and kissed the bracelets, kissed Tony’s pulsepoint, relished in their mixed scents. 

“Is it working?” Steve asked with a smile against Tony’s skin. 

“Damn right it’s working,” Tony grumbled and shifted back, rocking his hips. Heat surged through Steve and he gasped. Tony smirked, smug and satisfied. “I’ll show you cute.”

And he did, very thoroughly. 

# # # # # #

At their wedding, they invited John Oliver too. He cried a lot during the ceremony and wasn’t ashamed to say it at all on his next show. 

Steve and Tony shed a couple tears as well as they exchanged their wedding vows and wore the wedding necklaces that matched their engagement bracelets in color and scent. They twined their fingers together and swore to be together to the end of their lives. 

“Forever and ever, til death do us part,” Steve said, holding Tony’s hand, unsure who was trembling more. 

Tony smiled and smiled, tears in his eyes as he said, “Ditto.”

**THE END**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I seriously considered writing some kind of rose ceremony ala the Bachelor but I couldn’t do it, lol. So, this is my first a/b/o fic, and I was pretty worried throughout if I actually gave it enough a/b/o elements. I read the genre, but I never thought I would write it because I lack confidence in making it a satisfying read. The original prompt asked for no explicit smut, which is why I couldn't lean on that. I hope this was a satisfying a/b/o courtship read in any case!
> 
> Also, by the end of the story, I had a hankering to try out my hand at a/b/o smut, so there will be a sequel posted either next week or the week after. It will be extremely flufftastic and smutty. It's finished, just waiting for me to clean it up a bit as usual. 
> 
> Thank you so much to Coaster for the amazing beta-reading work! You have my eternal gratitude!

**Author's Note:**

> If you like this story, you can reblog it on tumblr [here](https://awesomelifechoices.tumblr.com/post/190343043263/fic-heart-in-hand).


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